title: Volcanoes: Nature's Incredible Fireworks (Earth Works)
author:  David L. Harrison 
description: Grade 2-3-In clear text and simple pictures, the author and illustrator offer a look at volcanoes and the forces at work deep beneath the earth. The book addresses basic questions such as how rocks get so hot that they melt and what causes a volcano. A colorful diagrammatic look at the four layers of the earth is followed by a fundamental explanation of plate tectonics. Passing mention is made of Mount St. Helens and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. An author's note offers slightly more in-depth material. It's unfortunate that there is no glossary, but the book is still a fine addition to libraries and a good jumping-off place for further exploration.<br /><i>Dona Ratterree, New York City Public Schools</i><br />Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
zlib_text: CHAPTER
  
  I
  
  FIRE.
  
  It sputtered in the oil lamps that hung distant and solitary in the windows
  and entryways of her people's homes. It spat and hissed as it licked at the
  pitch-coated torches bracketing road intersections and gates. It glowed
  through breaks in the leafy branches of the ancient oak and hickory where
  glassed lanterns lined the treelanes. Bits and pieces of flickering light, the
  flames were like tiny creatures that the night threatened to search out and
  consume.
  
  Like ourselves, she thought.
  
  Like the Elves.
  
  Her gaze lifted, traveling beyond the buildings and walls of the city to where
  Killeshan steamed.
  
  Fire.
  
  It glowed redly out of the volcano's ragged mouth, the glare of its molten
  core reflected in the clouds of vog-volcanic ash-that hung in sullen banks
  across the empty sky. Killeshan loomed over them, vast and intractable, a
  phenomenon of nature that no Elven magic could hope to withstand. For weeks
  now the rumbling had sounded from deep within the earth, dissatis