Big Bangs
Beverley MacDonald
Andrew Weldon

Allen & Unwin 2000

180pp. pbk

1865083542

 

 If you like bangs, booms, explosions, volcanoes, real life stories, weird stuff, tragedy, disaster, death and little pink frogs that fall from the sky, then you’ll like Big Bang.

Just from looking at the cover I thought it was a good book. When I started reading I couldn’t stop, It kept me hanging on till the end. Its realism and real life events were great to read. It got me so worked up, had me rolling on the floor in laughter and was extremely interesting. Its timeline on the bottom of the page was also intriguing. Its pictures at the start of each page gave a start, but could have been more detailed more pictures could have been added, but making them in my head was more fun.

They have obviously studied life in those days. All the setting is believable and I could almost smell the lava and hear the snakes and bangs. The things they said made an impact. The author used great examples of just how dangerous volcanoes and disasters can be. The start of each of the stories starts giving you a real insight to what the story is about. From little pink frogs to bubbling volcanoes. They use great words to describe the explosions and aftermath, barren, wasteland, like a crescendo in a movie.

I loved this book.

Reviewer Patrick. Year 5  Adelaide

Big Bangs is an information book for people over 12.  The people who like science would like this book, but if you weren’t into science you wouldn’t enjoy this book as much.

I didn’t like this book as much as I expected to, because it had too much information and words I couldn’t understand.

I thought the illustrations were funny and helped me understand the information a bit better.

It is a read alone book. It is too hard for primary school.

Reviewer: Kieran 10 Vic.

This is a factual book about explosions. But it is also a book about history as seen through a timeline of explosions natural and man-made. The book starts with a warning that all big explosions are dangerous - so don't try any of these.

This story looks at important events in history that have big bangs to them. The first is at a place in history called Masada where the Jewish people were fighting the Romans using catapults throwing stones. The book ends with what is called the big crunch - the reverse of a big bang.

I enjoyed reading this book. It is suited more to boys than girls. My rating is 8/10

Daniel. Yr 6, Victoria