Veronica and the Volcano - Hardcover

Cook, Geoffrey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0692892001 ISBN 13: 9780692892008

Publisher: Violet Moon, LLC, 2017

Synopsis

JOIN THE COURAGEOUS YOUNG HEROINE ON A VOLCANIC ADVENTURE! 
Girls + Science = WIN! Combines earth science with incredible action!
Deluxe Color Hardcover -- Includes dozens of the most beautiful volcanic illustrations in print today!

"An exciting adventure with an appealingly game young heroine." - Kirkus Reviews

Veronica and the Volcano by Geoffrey Cook is an exciting adventure story for grades 3 - 5 about a brave, curious young girl named Veronica, who lives on the side of a volcano. Eruptions are a part of life, as she watches from the protective shields of her home or from her family's well-equipped Lava Car.

When Veronica leaves on a quest to find rare white volcano pearls on the far side of Mount Mystery, she leads her father, her best friend Maddy, and her friend's dad, the blustering Captain John, into a series of incredible adventures. But when the colossal volcano erupts, fears wins an election, and Veronica must square off against a fear-mongering villain: the Man-in-White.

Cook's story blends science with science fiction, straddling the world of the believable and fantastical and combining the latest earth science with incredible action. While writing, Cook extensively researched volcanoes, even visiting one. The most important volcanoes in the book are all based on real-world volcanoes like Krakatoa, Crater Lake, Mt. Pelee, and Tambora.

In Veronica and the Volcano kids will root for Veronica every step of the way, and while they are cheering her on, they'll learn as well. Complementing STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) curriculum, the book is filled with educational elements about volcanoes, geysers, caves, and the wonders of physics. A glossary in the back provides an at-a-glance list of the facts in the book.

Artist Gabrielle Shamsey lavishly illustrated the book with many dozens of wonder-filled and vivid images of volcanoes, caves, eruptions, and more.

Veronica and the Volcano is perfect for volcano lovers of all ages.

"Made me gasp and laugh out loud ... absolutely thrilling!" - Reader's Favorite, Starred Review

THE BEST VOLCANO BOOK FOR KIDS!

About this title

From the Author:

How did you become an author? My ten-year-old daughter Madeline inspired me to write the book. When she was in the first grade, I began reading to her at bedtime almost every night. We read the first 3 books of Harry Potter, the Princess Bride, and soon I began to read middle-grade books for pleasure myself, like The Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins, most books by Roald Dahl, and A Wrinkle in Time. Around this time, my wife began telling Madeline bedtime stories about a little girl who lived on a volcano. She named her Veronica after her mother's middle name. Veronica's adventures were Maddy's adventures: a lost tooth, a win at softball, a skinned knee.  Maddy loved Veronica. I would tell her a new story on the twenty-five-minute ride to school each morning. Over time, the stories got more involved. I imagined Veronica's volcanic world and even drew a map. Eventually I began to write the stories down. How do you describe the experience of reading and storytelling? The poet Rumi said it best: "When a man makes up a story for his child, he becomes a father and a child together, listening." Story transforms the storyteller. You must be the child to experience the sense of awe and wonder, and you must be the adult to write it down. I love the act of reading stories to my children, especially stories I can get into myself. What are you trying to achieve through your works? If I had to condense the message of Veronica I'd say it is this: the adults are not always good, but that's not an excuse to be bad. Innocence may not be able to survive trauma but a fundamental sense of goodness can, and this sense of goodness is inherently linked to the mystery, beauty, and power of nature. In today's troubled times, I think Veronica's story is resonant. Evil doesn't always come dressed in black and carrying a gun, sometimes it comes dressed in white and asking for a vote. Veronica starts off sweet, innocent and trusting, cocooned in her family's love and in a larger community of townspeople who might as well be her uncles and aunts. By the end, some of the innocence is gone but her sense of wonder and inherent goodness is intact.  What are your favorite types of books/authors to read personally? Lately, I've been reading a lot about volcanoes :) I've recently read multiple accounts of the 1902 eruption of St. Pierre, which killed 30,000 people. I tend to have varied interests from classic fiction to non-fiction to poetry. While writing Veronica, I read more poetry than I had ever read in my life up until that point. I was hoping some of it might rub off on my prose and some of the themes might work themselves into my characters. I read a lot of Rilke, Rumi, Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, etc. Many of the poets I discovered on the podcast On Being by Krista Tippett.  Do you have other work or other live experience you bring to your writing? I began an editing business in 1997 from a Harvard dorm room, grew it to 300 people, and sold it to a division of The Thomson Corporation in 2002. For the last 12 years I've been running mobile social apps, and I am the CEO of The Meet Group (NASDAQ: MEET).  To write Veronica, I drew on my experience as a father of two girls, aged 10 and 7, and a son, aged 2. Lake George, where my family spends time each summer, was another major influence as were our summertime neighbors there. Family trips to Crater Lake National Park, Oregon, the site of a volcano 100x larger than Mount Saint Helens and to Muir Woods inspired some of the work. The book Krakatoa by Simon Winchester was another major influence.

About the Author:

Geoffrey is a serial entrepreneur and public company CEO. He is the CEO and co-founder of The Meet Group (NASDAQ: MEET) and previously founded EssayEdge and ResumeEdge from a Harvard dorm. He runs 5 mobile apps with 10 million monthly users, so he is always thinking of new ways to use technology to engage a global audience. Geoffrey started telling Veronica and the Volcano stories to pass the time with his daughter Madeline on the twenty-five-minute drive to school every morning. She enjoyed his stories, and so he wrote them down.  Veronica and the Volcano is available on Amazon and at selected independent bookstores. Find out more at geoffreycook.com and connect with the author on: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Goodreads.

About this edition

• Publisher: Violet Moon, LLC
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0692892001
• ISBN 13: 9780692892008
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320
• Illustrator: Shamsey Gabrielle