I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

OMG, I am absolutely dancing around that I got accepted for this book. I wish I could share this book with my 8-10 year old self, read it together. Back then I was a giant fan of books/stuff about volcanoes. These days I am still hyped whenever I see a book or series about volcanoes, but I don’t think I can ever top the hype from when I was that age. OK, I may not have gotten that far given I am Dutch and my English when I was 8-10 was verrrrrrrrrrryyyyy limited as in a few words. But I am sure someone could have translated the book for me. Or I could have grabbed a dictionary. Or anything.

So here we are, following Ava and George as they go on a journey to exploring the world of volcanoes. I just loved the fact that detective skills are mentioned. Another thing I love, detectives. Eep!
It seems that Ava is the volcano expert and George is the one for earthquakes. Though later on they combine their forces and together tell us all about volcanoes. While on my ecopy the pages don’t connect I am guessing (given how seamlessly the pages fit together if I flip) that they will in the real copy and then it becomes even more fun to read.

I didn’t really read anything new, but I still had plenty of fun seeing how Ava and George explained the workings of earthquakes and volcanoes to everyone. It is very clear and easily to follow, and it is fun. I have read a few volcano books for kids that was just very dry and textbooky, but this one is playful and really grabs the reader by the hand to show them all the fun and wonderful things.

I was already wondering when we would see some more about earthquakes but that happens about 16 pages in the book! We learn about how earthquakes work, we read about famous (or would that be infamous) earthquakes, we also get information on tsunamis (which often happen after an earthquake).

The book is also filled with plenty of fun experiments to show how things happen. They aren’t too hard to do so kids can experiment on their own, maybe only need to ask their parents to get some things. Later on there is also a quiz to see how much you remember from the book and what you learned. And at the end there is a glossary so you can check the words you learned again.

Oh, and tip. For the cookie at the first experiment? Maybe use tea or milk instead of just plain water. Afterwards you can just eat the cookie. Believe me cookie + normal water doesn’t make it yummy.

The illustrations are just fabulous, it was definitely the second thing that made me press that request button very fast. It is really cute, fun, playful. Plus detailed.

All in all, I definitely want more Geo Detectives and I hope that these books will get translated to Dutch so my libraries can stock them. I am sure kids will absolutely devour these books and I would recommend this book to everyone.