CBR15Passport Different genres (science fact and fiction mixed)
I am not sure if I liked Zeke the Weather Geek: There’s a Lizard in my Blizzard. I know I did not dislike it, but like? You see this is a fun story about weather, friendship and doing your best. It has some illustrations and modern touches. There are also a few “old school” parts that make it cozy and familiar, plus a bit on the fresher side. But there was nothing in Joan Axelrod-Contrada and Ann Malaspina’s novel that jumped out at me.
There is a mix of story (Zeke loves all things weather. He loves his dad, who is off to Antarctica to research global warming and penguins, there is a photography contest for the best winter picture he wants to win, he has a pesky kid brother, and he wants a St. Bernard) and the facts about all types of meteorology. If you do not know a lot about weather, that is okay, there are a a few pages and/or sidebars separate from the narrative flow to give you the facts. These insertions of weather, winter, blizzards, and other facts as their own pages both slows the pacing of the story and allows you to understand what is being talked about. There are puns with weatehr (Zeke’s weather meter of emotions goes negative 100, 10 degrees higher, etc). Overall, it is a good story for science and weather geeks, plus people learning about it.
Even the illustrations of Paula Becker (which are cute and amusing) were decent, but not fantastic. I am sure kids will get a kick out of them, but they were okay for me. I read this via a reader copy on Edelweiss; therefore, the images were not finished. I would like to see more color, as you can se by the cover Zeke has a nice head of red hair. I know there is an audience for this book. I am going to recommend it, just with the clarification of “Not my cup of hot chocolate. Needed more marshmallows.”