Nonfiction Monday: Oil Spill! Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico

Nonfiction Monday is hosted by Myra at Gathering Books

     The BP oil spill which was the focus of all our attention last April is now barely mentioned in the news at all, even though the residents of the Gulf are still very much affected by that long ago event.  My students, however, still remember the gushing deep sea pump and ask about it - especially if something like that could ever happen again.  For my students, and all those other students still  interested in knowing what took place, there is a marvelous new book to explore - Oil Spill: Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, by Elaine Landau.

      Landau divides her book into five chapters: the explosion of the oil rig, the efforts to stop the leak, the clean up, the environmental consequences and the questions raised by the spill - what are we doing to make sure this does not happen again?  Each chapter is illustrated with photographs that help readers visualize the scope of the spill - from the ever expanding ring of oil to the wildlife it coated and destroyed, the photographs add to Landau's  clear and effective writing style.  I think my sixth graders will be fascinated by the diagrams of the oil pump and the way a rig is able to pump oil so far off the coast line.  There are well drawn  maps  as well, which illustrate how far the oil drifted from the site of the rig itself. 
     I loved the fact that there is a section devoted to "What You Can Do."  Topics like this leave the reader wanting to act, to do something to make sure we protect our environment from disasters like this, and I think kids in particular need to feel as though they can do something - from writing to representatives in  Congress to adopting "greener" habits at home (Walk when you can! Recycle!Conserve water!). 
     Landau also includes "Oil's Messy History" - a summary of the worst oil spills in history - I think this will bring home to our kids the fact that even though these seem to occur about every ten years (the last one was in 1991, when Iraqi forces emptied Kuwaiti pipelines into the Persian Gulf), the consequences are felt for decades after.  She also provides links and books for further research - something I am sure students will want to explore, especially since some of them are about a subject that seems really dear to their hearts - marine wildlife.
      I am trying to grow the nonfiction section of our class library, and this will be a great addition.  Books like this, short but packed with interesting information about an important topic, set my students on paths of extended discovery.  I can see using this book as part of our Wonderopolis project (still its creation stage!) when the time comes, too.