Buried Sunlight

The fourth book in the award-winning Sunlight Series, Buried Sunlight is a great upper-elementary book about fossil fuels and their influence on the Earth. In this book, the MIT professor Penny Chisholm creatively explains how coal, oil, and gas are essentially "buried sunlight."

Told from the perspective of the sun, this book really engages readers through its beautiful illustrations that make it very easy for students to understand. The vibrant pictures draw the reader in and double as informational text features, an essential component to informational texts. Included are diagrams with labels on them and timelines that give readers an idea of the amount of time that fossil fuels have been buried underground. Many important vocabulary words are also bolded and typed in all capital letters to draw focus to them.

An aspect of this book that I really enjoyed was the fact that the author included interactive questions that prompted students to stop and think. The author particularly focused on how the earth will continue to change if we continue to engage in the activities that may be detrimental to the earth.

Not only is this a great informational text, but I really enjoyed this book for its incredible illustrations that really made me want to continue reading. I think that students would get a clear idea of fossil fuels and their influence, but the language is relatively advanced. Even adults would benefit from reading this!

Buried Sunlight
By: Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm
Published in 2014