Children often wonder what it is like to be a meteorologist or how animals prepare for severe weather. Look Up to See What the Weather Will Be is a book written by a meteorologist, Guy Brown, and published by Science, Naturally! It answers these questions and covers many more weather-related topics.

Look Up to See What the Weather Will Be is a 54-page book available in paperback for $14.95 and hardback for $16.95. I reviewed a paperback book in English; there is also a Spanish edition. The target age for the book is 7-10, and it was a great fit as a supplement for our elementary-level weather unit.

I was excited to review this book while covering a science unit about the weather with my 8-year-old. Look Up to See What the Weather Will Be is a colorful and well-organized book that supplemented our weather unit very well. It not only reinforced information that we were learning about clouds and their relationship to the weather, but it also introduced new information, such as what a meteorologist does, what tools he uses, and how animals respond to and survive in harsh weather conditions.

The first thing about the book that caught my attention was the beautiful illustrations by Mario Lugo. From cover to cover, the images provide a great visual learning experience. The artwork is colorful, realistic, fun, and informative. In addition, the detailed illustrations of Guy Brown guide the reader throughout the book.

This book covers many weather-related topics: why the weather is studied, what it is like to be a meteorologist, weather tools, animal behaviors and adaptations, weather safety, cloud identification, weather prediction, and weather-related vocabulary. One of the unique features that we enjoyed was the discussion of animal behavior in response to approaching weather. The author teaches the reader how we can learn about coming weather by observing animals and the sky, and he shows how some animals respond to severe weather. One of the animals featured in this section is a horse during a tornadic thunderstorm. The author tells how a horse will run away from an approaching tornado and discusses the care owners may need to provide when the horse returns. Another chapter shows how some animals survive in harsh climates. This book added information about animals and their relationship with weather to our weather unit. Twenty-four pages, a sizable portion of the book, cover these animal topics. Animals highlighted include barn owls, horses, bears, sea lions, camels, and elephants.

Cloud formations, where each type of cloud is in the atmosphere, and what weather to expect with the different clouds are discussed and illustrated clearly. On one page, readers are encouraged to spot cloud formations in the picture based on descriptions of the cloud types. On the following pages, they could see if they identified the clouds correctly while reading more about the cloud types and their related weather.

Another nice feature in the book is the reproducible “My Weather Journal” page. This page prompts the student to draw a cloud and an animal they observed and then note what weather type they observed afterward. This page could be photocopied and used multiple times, giving the student a fun record of their weather study.

Supplemental resources are available for use with the book. A weather journal, My Weather Journal by Guy Brown, is available for $9.95. On the product webpage, a link to Guy Brown’s website provides more weather-related activities and resources, including weather quizzes and a place where students can help make a forecast by entering their weather observations. These activities were fun, quick, and educational. We enjoyed these at the end of our weather unit.

A teacher’s guide is available as a free download on the publisher’s website, www.sciencenaturally.com, under the educational resources tab. The teacher’s guide is ninety pages, and although designed for use in a classroom setting, some parts can be used or adapted for use within a homeschool or co-op setting. Some activities that would be easy to use in a homeschool include making a weather report, coloring a map of the significant biomes worldwide, and matching weather tools with their use. I read two references to evolution in the guide, both stating, “Over time, animals have evolved adaptations…,” but evolution is not a predominant theme in the guide and is not a theme in the book.

We enjoyed reading Look Up to See What the Weather Will Be while studying weather, and I would recommend this book to other homeschool families. It is a terrific addition to an elementary-level weather unit. This was the debut children’s book for both the author and illustrator, and they created a visually exciting, helpful, and educational resource.

-Product review by Sarah Roth, The Old Schoolhouse® December 2022