Meteorology Book for Children

An initiative of the board of the Norwegian Meteorological Society has now come to a successful end: a book about weather, for children in early school age. The book is centered on an exciting story about a carrier pigeon race from north to south in Norway. Sofia and John (the pigeons) face severe challenges along the way, dramatic weather phenomenon like blizzards, thunderstorms, and tornadoes. But the weather can also be helpful, as when John tricks a raven to look for a treasure in the end of a rainbow. Every chapter is followed by an educational fact and easy to do science experiments on the most important weather phenomenon.

The intention of combining fiction story with experiments is to trigger children`s natural curiosity with the story, and provide the opportunity to follow this curiosity with hands on experiments. Experiments in combination with a story can help visualize the facts in the story, and strengthen the learning, in addition to be beneficial for different kinds of learning styles; story for auditory learners, and experiments for tactile learners. An associated webpage (www.metlab.no) that contains video filmed experiments can help visual learners.

After some struggling and rejections from publishers, the project obtained support from the Research Council of Norway (PROREAL program) in 2010. An illustrator was hired, and an updated manuscript was accepted by Gyldendal Agency, one of the major publishers in Norway. After auditing, the book was published in September 2011 (“Kappflygning i all slags vær”, ISBN/EAN: 9788205415171).

The reception of the book has been good, with reviews like this: "The book is lovely, lively and beautifully illustrated ... a book full of excitement and knowledge." The authors would like to get in touch with publishers or authors in other countries who would like to publish a similar book concept.