Field trip to volcano island

K-Gr 2--The journey to Volcano Island begins aboard the school bus helicopter. Wearing silver fire proximity suits with opaque face masks, the students and teacher exit the bus and begin their exploration of the island. They see geysers, boiling mud, and lava. One child lags behind as he picks the colorful flowers the group passes. After hiking to the rim of a huge crater, they see a lava vent way down at the bottom. Then disaster strikes! The flowers the child has picked get caught in a gust of wind and blown into the crater. Unbeknownst to the group, the child goes after the flowers and finds himself slipping and sliding all the way to the bottom. He cannot climb back up and when he turns around…SURPRISE!…lava monsters. They are friendly, but sad that the flower has turned to ash in their hands. As in the previous "Field Trip" stories, featuring a diverse range of kids and others, Hare's impeccable illustrations tell a complete story. Text is not needed nor missed, and the result is a book that can live well beyond a prescribed age range. The careful observer will find plenty of fun details while fans of the previous books will recognize the child with the camera and the one with the sketchpad. VERDICT The latest of Hare's wordless tales follows a winning formula for a grand adventure that tucks a little SEL into the field trip. A must for all libraries.--Catherine Callegari

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? Patrick Gall March/April 2022 p.(c) Copyright 2022. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.