We love to read aloud in our family and find that biographies are often our favorites. The Man Who Named the Clouds, by Julie Hannah and Joan Holub, incorporates many elements of a great read-aloud. While not a chapter book, it includes beautiful illustrations by Paige Billin Frye and many interesting details about weather and clouds.
The book tells the wonderful story of Luke Howard. As a child in the late seventeen hundreds, and then as an adult in the eighteen hundreds, he studied weather, kept weather journals, and eventually classified and gave Latin names to clouds.
There were many wonderful elements to the story. I loved the paintings that he did of clouds, as well as the sample weather journals. The story is inspiring with its depictions of Quaker life, and I appreciated the lessons in Latin that are included regarding the cloud names. There is also a detailed bibliography that could be used to create an entire unit study centered on this book. I found it to be a wonderful addition to our library. It has many similarities to the fabulous Carry On, Mr. Bowditch while being much more accessible to young children and preschoolers.
Product review by Jennifer Pepito, Contributing Writer, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, January 2007
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