The Whirlwind World of Hurricanes with Max Axiom, Super Scientist

by Katherine Krohn

Overview

In graphic novel format, follows the adventures of Max Axiom as he explores the science and history behind hurricanes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781429656368
Publisher:	Capstone
Publication date:	07/01/2010
Series:	Graphic Science Series
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,095,768
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 10.80(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	NC750L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 14 Years

About the Author

Katherine Krohn is the author of many books for young readers, including biographies, fiction, and graphic science and history books. Her books on supernatural subjects include Haunted Houses (Capstone Press) and Fortune Telling (Kidhaven Press). Krohn was born in Germany and grew up in the Detroit area. She now lives in the Pacific Northwest, home of many reported bigfoot sightings.

Table of Contents

Violent storm — Hurricane hunters — Hurricanes in history — Naming the storm.

Editorial Reviews

There are lots of engaging resources available for teaching science to young kids, but one of the best is strangely little known: a terrific and highly entertaining series of science-themed graphic novels from Capstone Press, featuring a super scientist by the name of Max Axiom. Max Axiom, the story goes, was hiking one day when he was struck by megacharged lightning. The accident gave him the ability to shrink to the size of the atom, while his magic lab coat enables him to travel through space and time. These super powers mean that when he is, for instance, investigating viruses, he can stand on a human knee and watch as a scrape becomes infected. He can travel down inside a plant to show the role of chloroplasts in photosynthesis. Each book in the series features an adventure focused on one science theme, such as Cell Life, Chemical Reactions, or Electricity. Information is presented clearly and engagingly, and each book also features a glossary, suggestions for further reading, and pre-screened internet links. There are more than 15 books in the series altogether. Unfortunately, the Brooklyn Public Library and New York Public Library each only carry one of these well-designed books, but you can purchase four for the price of three on Amazon. http://www.examiner.com/homeschooling-in-new-york/max-axiom-graphic-novels-make-learning-science-fun

Examiner.com

Reason for Reading: I am a huge fan of Capstone books which publishes "worry-free" content, easy reader graphic novels and chapter books with graded reading levels. My reading challenged son has used their books to improve his reading skills and has enjoyed almost all the books, even on the small occasions when I don't. The Dynamic World of Chemical Reactions by Agnieszka Biskup. Illustrated by Cynthia Martin & Barbara Schulz. 32 pages. Ages 8+. Aug. 1, 2010. This is a non-fiction graphic title with no pretense at a story or plot. Scientist Max Axiom, who has super powers, welcomes us to his lab and starts telling us about chemical reactions. I've only had one year of chemistry myself and found the information to be quite detailed at that level. It is presented in a fun and thorough way through text and graphics. Max stays in his lab for the most part, but he also takes us over to a chemist friend of his for more information and then he jumps around town to show chemical reactions at work in real life. Max has several super abilities but we only see two of these in action in this book, his lab coat allows his to travel through time and space, here he travels around space, and he has the ability to shrink down to microscopic size. There are fact boxes every now and then telling more information on a certain topic, a page at the end that lists various information about the topic and the book has an index. An enjoyable and interesting concept for a hi-low reader that imparts a nice dose of science. The book will be most appreciated for use in the classroom or for readers who already have an interest in the subject matter. Reading Level Gr. 3-4. Interest Level Gr. 3-9. Rating: 3/5 The Whirlwind World of Hurricanes by Katherine Krohn. Illustrated by Cynthia Martin & Al Milgrom. 32 pages. Ages 8+. Aug. 1, 2010. This is a pure non-fiction graphic title. We enter Super Scientist, Max Axiom's lab where he proceeds to tell us about hurricanes. Though Max does have several super abilities such as x-ray vision and shrinking to the size of atoms, he does not use any of these abilities in this volume except that he can travel from one place to another very quickly and travel into the past. Which he does, as he takes the reader all over to special science and weather stations that study and predict hurricanes. Plus taking us back to see some of the US's worst hurricanes from one in Galveston Texas, 1900 to Katrina in 2005. There are fact boxes every now and then telling more information on a specific topic, a page at the end that lists various information about the topic and the book has an index. An enjoyable and interesting concept for a hi-low reader that imparts a nice dose of science. The book will be most appreciated for use in the classroom or for readers who already have an interest in the subject matter. Reading Level Gr. 3-4. Interest Level Gr. 3-9. Rating: 3/5 http://back-to-books.blogspot.com/2011/02/max-axiom-super-scientist-graphic.html

Back to Books Blog

I’m in love – or, better yet, my son is in love! We’ve had the opportunity to review graphic science books on all sorts of topics that are fun and easy to read. Comic book style science sounds really fluffy doesn’t it? Believe it or not, the Max Axiom series is full of “real” science that goes deep enough to be appropriate for any upper elementary/early middle school child. My son is a less-than-zealous textbook reader. (Picture eyes glazing over and giant yawns.) After reading – or being read to – from a textbook, he recalls very little of the information. Over the years, I’ve turned science into hands-on unit studies and supplemented with lots of library books, which has worked quite well. During one of these unit study times, I came across Max Axiom and wanted to know more. I found that Capstone Press offers many, many Max Axiom books, and boy were my son and I excited! Twenty-four books total cover the areas of biology/botany, chemistry, physical and earth science. In each book, Max Axiom (a scientist with super powers), goes on an adventure to learn all about the topic at hand. He can shrink to the size of bacteria and whiz through the human body, or go back in time to learn more about a famous scientist of the past. All of this in a 32 page comic book! (When I say comic book, don’t think of flimsy pages, these are “real” books.) http://thecurriculumchoice.com/2011/07/max-axiom-graphic-science-books/

Curriculum Choice blog