The most recommended volcano books

This book is filled the Mayan mythology. I found that the magic was fascinating, and I couldn’t get enough of the monsters, gods, and giants. They make for an exciting read—even if you’re not a middle grader.

I loved this book because, as a parent, I’m always looking for ways to get kids excited about science and to think of science in a fun and accessible way. This is where this book excels.

I also adore cats, especially Pete the Cat! This is a tremendously fun and engaging read. The book’s illustrations are zany, highly colorful, and simply a joy to view time and time again. Little ones are introduced to basic scientific ideas.

They also learned a great lesson about teamwork and overcoming obstacles during their big experiment. Pete and his friends might feel blue (hint, hint) about their problem, but they quickly learn to embrace it. There is a sparkly surprise at the end of their project. Can you readers guess what that is?

I absolutely cannot spoil what might be the greatest twist in genre lit, so you’re just going to have to take my word on this one.

Lee was a master of character-driven plots and this one starts with an oldie but goodie trope: the character who wakes up with amnesia and has to explore a whole world to find herself. Our heroine has no name and no face—she always wears a mask—but the mystery of why she does so will keep your turning page after page.

If the title alone doesn’t make you want to read this book, you need to ask what happened to your sense of wonder. Don’t worry, though, because this novel will bring it back from the dead.

This is one of the novels I read in high school that stuck with me. Mike Mullin’s Ashfall is a story about a supervolcano that erupts and causes unimaginable terror and chaos for a vast amount of the population. The unfortunate event that takes place in this novel opened my eyes to the power of Mother Nature. My own novel centers around an apocalyptic rain event; Ashfall is comparable to my own book in a way that shows how quickly Mother Nature can become deadly when angered.

This is similar to my first recommendation in its theme: a tremendous natural disaster overwhelming a small community (in this case a volcano and a Caribbean island). It moves at the pace of a novel … as does the lava when it starts flowing… building up to the terrible, climactic conclusion. I’ve read it three or four times and it never loses its power. Once you start reading, you can’t put it down. Don’t watch the terrible Paul Newman film which is loosely based on the book though!

In this book, Jules Verne takes readers on an extraordinary journey deep beneath the Earth’s surface, exploring uncharted realms and encountering strange and wondrous phenomena.

Through the intrepid expedition led by Professor Lidenbrock, the novel captures the human fascination with the unknown and continues a rich literary tradition dedicated to imagining what wonders might be concealed under the surface of our world.

As the characters navigate through subterranean landscapes filled with peril and discovery, Verne masterfully explores themes of exploration, adventure, and the limits of human knowledge. This timeless classic continues to captivate readers with its imaginative portrayal of a forbidden world hidden beneath our feet.

Between periodic news reports of fatal eruptions and an array of films in which lava, landslides, and ash are used to provide dramatic effect, volcanoes, as Andrews points out, have a dreadful reputation. However, these enigmatic phenomena are also fundamental to the very structure of our planet, not to mention others beyond. 

In this book, Andrews provides a lively and informative defence of volcanoes and illustrates some of the most intriguing stories and enduring mysteries surrounding these natural wonders.

More than just exuding the author’s palpable enthusiasm for his subject—an interest I quickly found myself sharing—the book additionally challenged many of my preconceptions about how volcanoes work and broadened my horizons as to their sheer diversity. 

Robert Harris is a fantastic storyteller of any era, but I have particularly enjoyed his Roman historical fiction books. His Cicero series is a favorite of mine, so I knew I had to read Pompeii.

I felt sympathy for the characters, a combination of real and fictional, and anxiety as they failed to understand the extent of the looming danger. The setting was spectacularly done, truly transporting readers back to the doomed city, where you will wish you could shake people and yell, “Get out while you can!”

I kept thinking I knew what would happen – I mean, we know the volcano erupts, right?! But I was still pleasantly surprised by the ending. 

Old Rock's friends think that he has a boring life. Yes, he's been sitting in the same spot for many, many years. But Old Rock tells them about the time he flew (out of a volcano!) and the dinosaurs he met and the time he lived inside a glacier. Seems Old Rock's life has not only been long, but very exciting! With the various characters in the book, there's fun dialogue begging to be read aloud. Your budding geologist, paleontologists, and historians will love to hear you read this book aloud.

Who knew there were volcanoes in northern Arizona? Wendell Duffield takes readers on a visual and literary tour de force of this amazing region. The San Francisco Volcanic Field contains over 600 vents and cones with one large stratovolcano, a half a dozen or more silicic dome volcanoes, and hundreds of basalt cinder cones. All are explained in clear, concise prose. And who knew the Grand Canyon had volcanoes too, some of which spilled cascading lava flows into the canyon, damming the river at least 17 times. It’s all here in this little book that has a big impact.