READING LEVEL: 4.0 TO 5.0

INTEREST LEVEL: YA

GUIDED READING LEVEL: T

 

10 Books (1 each of 10 titles) Plus 10 Teacher's Resource Guides

 

This series of nonfiction readers will grab a student's interest from the very page! Designed with struggling readers in mind, these riveting 64-page softcover books offers short chapters on significant disasters. Each chapter is its own mini-book, which includes a timeline, key terms, and interesting facts. Fascinating black and white photographs keep the pages turning. A bibliography encourages further topical reading.

 

Titles include:

 

Travel by airplane is far safer than travel by car. But airplane accidents still occur, and people on board rarely survive. Learn the true stories behind tragedies in Tenerife, the Andes Mountains, Washington, D.C., the Soviet Union, the Persian Gulf, and New York City.

 

Today scientists can predict weather patterns. Despite these forecasts, storms can develop so fast that people have no chance to escape. Read about the havoc wrecked by tropical storms and tornadoes in Bangladesh, Galveston, Central America, the Midwest, and New England.

 

Earthquakes are caused by shifts in the Earth's plates. Shock wavess from these events cause varying amounts of destruction based on their magnitude. Often, earthquakes incite other disasters as well, such as fires and tsunami. Read about major earthquake calamities in San Francisco, Mexico City, Japan, Lisbon, and China.

 

As society moves forward technologically and scientifically, pollution wrecks the natural environment. Learn here about the tragic effects of industrical accidents such as the Great Smog of London, Love Canal, and Hanford nuclear plants, the Exxon Valdez, Chernobyl, and Bhopal.

 

Fires can start in many different ways and spread rapidly. When a fire gets out of control, people often panic. Fire disasters described here include London Bridge, the Great Fire of London, the Morro Castle, the Great Fire of Chicago, Iroquois Theater, and Warwick.

 

Even expert mountain climbers face danger and risk. Some of these risks result from human negligence; others are due to weather or other uncontrollable factors. Accidents and their aftermath on the Eiger, Mount Everest, Mount Hood, Siula Grande, and Denali are analyzed in these accounts of bravery at the top of the world.

 

Freakish weather, human error, and devastating war are some of the causes of history's most frightening disasters at sea. Read here about such infamous disasters as the Titanic, the Lusitania, the Eastland, the Andrea Doria, the General Slocum, and the Kursk.

 

Space travel gives us a better understanding of ourselves, our planet, and the universe. But not all missions are successful and not all astronauts return. Read about the heroes of Apollo 1, Apollo 13, Soyuz 11, Challenger, and Columbia.

 

Understanding acts of terrorism and how terrist justify their horrible crimes will help us maintain a vigilant stance in a dangerous world. Find out more about the Munich Massacre, crimes of the SLA, the Archille Lauro hijacking, the Unabomber, the Oklahoma City bombing, the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

 

We understand how and why volcanoes erupt. But still, volcanoes destroy property and cause deaths. Read the awe-inspiring stories of nature's power on Mount Vesuvius, Mount St. Helens, Krakatoa, Mt. Pelee, Mount Pinatubo, Mauna Loa, and Kilauea.