WHEN THE GIANT STIRRED

Godkin traces the cycle of life on a tropical volcanic island. Along with lush forest and a lagoon’s underwater garden, a village of “gentle, smiling people” goes about in peaceful lives, occasionally climbing to their mountain’s top to appease the grumbling “giant” with prayers and sweet-smelling garlands. One day, however, the giant would not go back to sleep, “It rumbled and roared. It belched out black smoke, which fell as a rain of cinders on the village.” Then all the birds fly away, and seeing that, the village’s chief bids everyone pack up their goods and set sail in search of a new home. Shortly thereafter, the volcano explodes, wiping its slopes and waters clean of life—but only for a time. Richly colored, hazy scenes track the island’s change from verdant paradise to devastated fragments of rock around a sunken crater, then the slow return of flora, fauna, and, at the end, human travelers. Though lacking the inventive narrative and scientific detail of Jean Craighead George’s Dear Katie, the Volcano IS a Girl (1998), this makes a serviceable overview of its topic for younger children. (Picture book. 5-7)