The Tornado Watches: An Ike and Mem Story [Hardcover]

Grade 2-4-Ike and his family spend an evening in their basement during a tornado alert. When it is lifted, he fears that another warning will occur in the night, so he secretly watches the weather reports on a portable TV beneath his covers. The next day, Ike falls asleep at school. He feels worse after he stays up a second night, and he falls asleep during his third watch. He wakes in the middle of the night on a cot in the basement and his mother explains that the storm woke them and that she and his father carried him and his sister downstairs. A tornado damages their neighbors' home and yard so the friends move in with Ike's family while repairs are made. Jennings understands the worries of childhood and he portrays Ike as a caring, responsible boy. The text and pacing of this brief novel are ideal for beginning readers who are ready to tackle a longer chapter book with a slightly more complex plot. Alter's black-and-white illustrations provide necessary breaks.
Shawn Brommer, South Central Library System, Madison, WI
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 2-5. Ike lives where tornadoes are common, and one night a tornado warning causes the family to take shelter in the basement. When the warning is lifted, Ike worries they will miss the next alert, and so he secretly moves a TV into his bedroom and keeps it on all night. He falls asleep in class the next day--and the next--until his parents and teacher think he's sick. Finally, he wakes up one night to discover that he's in the basement--his parents heard the warning sirens and carried him and his sister to safety in their basement shelter. Their neighbors have their roof blown off, and there is some detail about roofers, loss of power, and how to cope during and after this kind of emergency. It's all done in simple language, and early readers should find the story, as well the pencil illustrations, comforting. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

A tornado warning is announced in Ike's town, and the sky fills with gray clouds. His little sister, Mem, worries that a tornado will carry away their house. Ike looks up tornado in the encyclopedia and finds out that tornadoes can come at night, when everybody is asleep. He knows he must look out for them--he must keep watch. After his bedtime, Ike hides a portable TV in his bed. He waits up all night, watching, in case another tornado warning is announced. Otherwise, how would his family know to go down to the basement? Who would protect them? This gentle young chapter book offers comforts and frights, and a cozy home to wait out the storm.

Anna Alter is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. She illustrated "The Three Little Kittens" and "Estelle and Lucy", which she also wrote. She lives in Massachusetts.

Patrick Jennings is the author of many books for young readers, including the recent BookSense Children's Pick "Out Standing in My Field." His Ike and Mem series was a success with the chapter book crowd, and "Booklist" observed in a starred review, "The writing is all the more telling in its spareness." He lives in Washington State.