Field Trip to Volcano Island
by John Hare; illus. by the author
Preschool, Primary    Ferguson/Holiday    40 pp.    g
2/22    978-0-8234-5042-8    $19.99
e-book ed.  978-0-8234-5280-4    $11.99

Hare’s (Field Trip to the Moon, rev. 9/19; Field Trip to the Ocean Deep, rev. 9/20) third wordless excursion brings us to a volcanically active island. Once the lava suit–clad kids and their teacher land, they waste no time getting right to exploring the tumultuous topography; however, one student seems more interested in collecting flowers than examining the terrain. When a breeze scatters the student’s floral collection down into the volcano’s crater, an ill-advised attempt at retrieval leaves the child stranded at the bottom — reinforced visually by a series of tall, narrow panels. A thrilling sequence follows, featuring a monstrous hand reaching toward the unsuspecting child…thankfully revealed (upon the page-turn) to belong to a charming lava monster with its family. In an action movie–level rescue, the teacher rappels from a helicopter to scoop up the missing student. The adventure stays in constant motion, propelled by brisk pacing and varied panel layouts. Hare’s acrylic illustrations are textural and dynamic yet maintain a cartoonlike quality, thanks to solid character outlines and expressive body language. Fans of this robust, whimsical world of student-adventurers can only wonder — where to next?

From the March/April 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.