Sarah Zambello (text), Susy Zanella (illustrator) and Emma Mandley (translator) Cloud Atlas, Thames & Hudson, September 2024, 80 pp., RRP $34.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760764500
Renaissance painters made them look gorgeous, farmers can predict the weather by looking at them, since 2005 there has been a worldwide association formed in appreciation of them, NASA has developed an app to assist in classifying them, and the Dutch photograpehr Berndnaut Smilde creates versions of them floating inside iconic buildings.
Clouds are with us nearly every day, offering us moods, shade, beauty, and fascinating shapes that prompt our imaginations. Sarah Zambello’s Cloud Atlas is an introduction for children, offering scientific, artistic and historical answers to all the questions they might have about clouds. Each page is comprehensively illustrated, either schematically or realistically, in gentle blues, whites and sunset or sunrise colours.
Readers will soon learn that clouds are made of water vapour and dust motes combining to reach a ‘dewpoint’ in the upper air. Thanks to the work of Luke Howard more than two hundred years ago, we recognise ten types of cloud based on their shapes and heights above sea level. And for every type there are fifteen species of clouds, ranging from the fibratus (fibrous) to the capillus (hairy). Take this book with you on holidays, excursions, picnics, strolls or just out into the back yard to discover the many pleasures of looking up at a world of misty tuffs, hairy castles, fish bones, radiating bands, and rolls of wool.
Highly recommended for young scientists and dreamers from five to fifty and beyond.
Reviewed by Kevin Brophy
