How Mountains Are Made

Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science, Stage 2

by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld, James Graham Hale (Illustrator)

29,028 feet tall and still growing?!

Even though Mount Everest measures 29,028 feet high, it may be growing about two inches a year. A mountain might be thousands of feet high, but it can still grow taller or shorter each year. Mountains are created when the huge plates that make up the earth's outer shell very slowly pull and push against one another. Read and find out about all the different kinds of mountains.

Genres: Science, Picture Books, Childrens, Nonfiction, Geography, Geology, Earth Sciences

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld is the award-winning author of more than sixty books for children, including DINOSAUR TRACKS, "a great choice for even the most discriminating dinophiles" (School Library Journal); DID DINOSAURS HAVE FEATHERS?, a Children's Book of the Month Club selection, described as "fascinating" by Kirkus Reviews; and DINOSAURS BIG AND SMALL, a 2003 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Best Book Award winner.

When she's not reading, researching, writing, or editing, Kathleen loves to spend her free time exploring, doing fieldwork, and preparing fossils for her local natural history museums.

Reviews

[James Westerfield]

-This book received the Outstanding Science Trade Book from the National Science Teachers Association and the CBC.

-Pre-K-2nd Grade

-How Mountains Are Made is a book about group of kids basically explaining about mountains. In it, they show what kind of mountains are placed around the world such as Mount Everest and explain its features, such as the layers, fossils, and how it can cause earthquakes. Not only that, but it also explains the fun activities you can do that involves mountains such as climbing and hiking.

-How Mountains Are Made is a great read for children who want to learn more about mountains. It also features great information about them, such as their height, features, how it can cause weather phenomena, and great activities they can do while on a mountain. It is also good for science lessons, as well.

-Activities can include taking the children on a field trip to a mountain to show what it is really like and have them construct their own mountains out of any object of their choosing.

[Maggie Davis]

After reading How Mountains Are Made, I notice that this book discusses the tectonic plates and how they move convergently and divergently to create mountains. On page 16 & 17, they show those ways and how they created folded mountains, dome mountains, fault block mountains, and volcanic mountains. They also provide real life examples with a towel and your hands. You push the towel in with your hands creating a folded mountain. This will allow the students to be engaged with the reading material. The book also uses images and explanation that other elements allow for the mountains to break down and wear away. As an activity, we can use play dough to make the shapes of mountains. We will also use candy and jars to represent the break down of mountains by shaking them. The maps at the end of the book gives the students perspective of where mountains are in the U.S.

[Joanna]

Millions and millions...

[Katie Little]

This is a great book! Recommended for all.

[EmberJenn]

Too many references of "millions of years" for me to use (even editing "on the fly"). Otherwise, it has nice, informative illustrations for the topic.

[Clive]

Mountains: Didn't use. It's a good book but for a much older child--rec 5-9. (Tectonic plates, fossils, layers of the earth).

[Sarah]

Wow, this book was really great! We own another of the "Let's Read And Find Out Science" books (From Seed to Pumpkin), and this book was just as impressive. I loved how they broke down the science combined with wonderful illustrations,making for an excellent science book. The text was so easy to understand, not just because how it was written, but because of the illustrations. They were very clear and were easy to relate to, even for my 6 year old son. He especially loved seeing what the dog was doing throughout the book. (The dog is in the Seed to Pumpkin book too.)

Lots of fun and lots of great information in an easily absorbed format. Well done!

[Jennifer]

Cute book with a story about climbing a mountain with explanations of how mountains form and the different types of mountains. Geared toward a younger age student than sixth grade, but cute book to use if there is time.

6th Grade New Mexico Science Standards:
Strand II. Standard III. 5-8 Benchmark II. 1
Strand II. Standard III. 5-8 Benchmark II. 2
Strand II. Standard III. 5-8 Benchmark II. 7
Strand II. Standard III. 5-8 Benchmark II. 8

*Available at Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Libraries*

[Alison]

Great book for an integrated science and literature lesson in the classroom. This book has an abundance of information about many different topics that may be overwhelming for one read aloud, but it could be used for a review if all the topics had been previously covered. Although this is a non-fiction book full of information the illustrations are colorful and easy to see. The text is also represented in a fun way by having speech bubbles come out of the characters mouth.

[Justine Paige]

This story is about four kids who hike up a mile high mountain and they discuss the science of how mountains are made. They explain the reason that sea creature fossils are found on top of mountains. They compare different types of mountains. The speech bubbles in the pictures give more fun facts. They also compare their small mountain to mount everest. It's a great book for students in 3rd or 4th grade for a geology unit.

[Heather]

We saw the older version of this book. I'm hoping the newly revised one is as good if not better.

We enjoyed this book quite a bit - good illustrations and easy text which fulfills its purpose in explaining how mountains are made . We'll use this again.

[April]

I've taken a university geology course, we are learning geology in our homeschool by watching the Great Courses... man! I learned so much just in this little book! Great stuff. Want to read the rest in the series.

[Colleen]

Rocky Tales - unit 8
Theme Library

[Jennifer]

Good for its intended audience.

[Heather]

2.5 stars. This book seemed to try to bridge the gap between a story and non-fiction and ultimately didn't do well at either.