The energy released when volcanoes erupt, engines combust, or bombs explode both thrills and fascinates people. But this power also kills.

Eruptions and Explosions: Real Tales of Violent Outbursts recounts the history of five blowups that continued to rattle the world long after the smoke had cleared and embers cooled. For example, in 1815, a mountain in Indonesia called Tambora erupted and caused a three-year winter and a famine that killed thousands. More people died later that century when the steamship Sultana exploded. In the last century we saw the dropping of the atomic bomb in Japan, the explosion of the nuclear reactor Chernobyl in the former USSR, and the rupture of an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, all explosions that caused widespread peril and destruction.

The Mystery and Mayhem series delves into fascinating tidbits of history to provide kids with a jumping-off point into a lifelong habit of appreciating history. Kids ages 10 to 13 love reading these real-life mysteries!

• Maps, photographs, and timelines lend authenticity and narrative texture to the stories.
• Readers learn of key turning points in world history and are exposed to some basic elements of climatology and environmental science.
• High-interest narrative nonfiction books are popular with middle grade students and educators because of the potential to engage low-interest readers with captivating action and compelling characters.

Judy Dodge Cummings is a writer and former history teacher from Reedsburg, Wisconsin. She has a MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Teens from Hamline University and is the author of numerous nonfiction books on historical topics. Her other books in the Mayhem and Mystery series are Great Escapes: Real Tales of Harrowing Getaways and Rebels & Revolutions: Real Tales of Radical Change in America.