Icebergs and Glaciers

Perhaps Simon's nonfiction for children is so successful because he gets readers involved in the environment around them, with both arresting and accessible facts. In this new book, he tells readers that the largest glacier ever measured is 200 miles long and 60 miles across; but it's also ""bigger than the state of Vermont or the country of Belgium.'' And those glaciers move. Simon also covers how ice fields form and become mobile, and why they are dangerous. Readers who put icebergs and glaciers in the same category as dinosaursfrom a time long agolearn of the relatively recent tragedy of the Titanic, and that icebergs someday may be used as fresh water sources in deserts. The facts are coupled with clear, full-color photographs; the correlation between text and illustration is direct and obvious, making captions unnecessary. Simon suggests that readers take a look at landscapes around themthey may just see a place where a glacier has passed by. Ages 48. (March)