Volcanoes

With grand photographs and compact text, these innovatively designed volumes in the publisher's Image series help foster an appreciation of the natural sciences. Gorgeously reproduced over full spreads, the color photographs dazzle the reader and transmute George's clear sense of wonder at his diverse subjects. A magnified image of a century plant in the desert, for example, encourages scrutiny of more common flora; a luminous underwater shot of a pink clownfish under cover in a coral reef suggests the earth's hidden beauties; mind-boggling views of such cosmic phenomena as a planetary nebula stretch the imagination. The text is laid out in transparent gray rectangles that allow the photographs to show through, and these text blocks are balanced on many pages by inset photos. Throughout, the writing is colorful and informative: Glaciers , for example, explains the ``adhesive grip'' of ice--``you can feel it if you touch a cold ice cube tray with damp hands''--then compares the erosive powers of an ice sheet to ``a giant file that grates the underlying terrain.'' Eight additional titles in the series are planned. Ages 7-up. (Nov.)