A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, A Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out
Discover how Mount Tambora's catastrophic eruption plunged the world into darkness, altering the global climate and inspiring the likes of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. This remarkable story of disaster and survival is brought to life in a thrilling new illustrated nonfiction title from the award-winning author of The Mona Lisa Vanishes.

The world was upside-down. The wind was fire. The sky was ash. The rain was rock.

A couple of hundred years ago, on a quiet Indonesian island, a volcano called Tambora erupted with a force and violence that changed history.

It tore apart the island, and in the months and years that followed, its fallout tore apart the world. The sun refused to shine; the rain refused to stop. Everything that everyone assumed would always be there-a world that made sense, a climate that made sense-was suddenly gone.

From this riot of thunder and lightning, a young woman named Mary Shelley conceived of a scientist and his cursed creature. From the nightmare of Tambora, she wrote a nightmare of a book: Frankenstein-a terrifying reminder of how much damage we humans might do, without even realizing it.

This is the story of a volcano that changed the world and a creature that changed us.

Once upon a time, everything was different. And no one knew if it would ever be the same.

In this masterful work of middle-grade nonfiction, Nicholas Day, author of the Sibert Award-winning The Mona Lisa Vanishes, brings us a story taken from the archives but seemingly scripted for us today: a tale of climate change and human folly and hope-and what happens when the world suddenly goes wrong.
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A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, A Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out
Discover how Mount Tambora's catastrophic eruption plunged the world into darkness, altering the global climate and inspiring the likes of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. This remarkable story of disaster and survival is brought to life in a thrilling new illustrated nonfiction title from the award-winning author of The Mona Lisa Vanishes.

The world was upside-down. The wind was fire. The sky was ash. The rain was rock.

A couple of hundred years ago, on a quiet Indonesian island, a volcano called Tambora erupted with a force and violence that changed history.

It tore apart the island, and in the months and years that followed, its fallout tore apart the world. The sun refused to shine; the rain refused to stop. Everything that everyone assumed would always be there-a world that made sense, a climate that made sense-was suddenly gone.

From this riot of thunder and lightning, a young woman named Mary Shelley conceived of a scientist and his cursed creature. From the nightmare of Tambora, she wrote a nightmare of a book: Frankenstein-a terrifying reminder of how much damage we humans might do, without even realizing it.

This is the story of a volcano that changed the world and a creature that changed us.

Once upon a time, everything was different. And no one knew if it would ever be the same.

In this masterful work of middle-grade nonfiction, Nicholas Day, author of the Sibert Award-winning The Mona Lisa Vanishes, brings us a story taken from the archives but seemingly scripted for us today: a tale of climate change and human folly and hope-and what happens when the world suddenly goes wrong.
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A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, A Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out

A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, A Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out

by Nicholas Day

Narrated by Louisa Zhu

Unabridged

A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, A Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out

A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, A Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out

by Nicholas Day

Narrated by Louisa Zhu

Unabridged

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Overview

Discover how Mount Tambora's catastrophic eruption plunged the world into darkness, altering the global climate and inspiring the likes of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. This remarkable story of disaster and survival is brought to life in a thrilling new illustrated nonfiction title from the award-winning author of The Mona Lisa Vanishes.

The world was upside-down. The wind was fire. The sky was ash. The rain was rock.

A couple of hundred years ago, on a quiet Indonesian island, a volcano called Tambora erupted with a force and violence that changed history.

It tore apart the island, and in the months and years that followed, its fallout tore apart the world. The sun refused to shine; the rain refused to stop. Everything that everyone assumed would always be there-a world that made sense, a climate that made sense-was suddenly gone.

From this riot of thunder and lightning, a young woman named Mary Shelley conceived of a scientist and his cursed creature. From the nightmare of Tambora, she wrote a nightmare of a book: Frankenstein-a terrifying reminder of how much damage we humans might do, without even realizing it.

This is the story of a volcano that changed the world and a creature that changed us.

Once upon a time, everything was different. And no one knew if it would ever be the same.

In this masterful work of middle-grade nonfiction, Nicholas Day, author of the Sibert Award-winning The Mona Lisa Vanishes, brings us a story taken from the archives but seemingly scripted for us today: a tale of climate change and human folly and hope-and what happens when the world suddenly goes wrong.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

★ "[A] multifaceted narrative that illustrates how natural disasters affect climate change." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"A cautionary tale of what we will all face, climate-wise, if we don’t heed the warning signs." —Kirkus Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

2025-05-30
A dramatic examination of both the immediate and long-term effects of recorded history’s deadliest, most titanic blast: the 1815 eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Tambora.

“The wordloud isn’t loud enough. The wordhot isn’t hot enough. The word— / None of the words are enough.” Award-winner Day offers readers a rousing recitation of the catastrophes resulting from this “unfathomable” natural disaster after the millions of tons of ash and sulfates belched out by the volcano created a worldwide “climate shock.” The results included floods, fires, crop failures, violent storms, disease outbreaks, and upended seasons: “A Feedback Loop of Bad,” as one chapter heading puts it. He also draws sweeping but plausible connections to less direct but no less consequential events, including Mary Shelley’s contemporaneousFrankenstein—he sees the book’s “transfixing weirdness” as “a story straight out of the madness that Tambora made”—and the beginnings of mass westward population movements in the U.S. and the development of modern meteorology. Day includes reflection questions for readers in several places and points to Tambora as a cautionary tale of what we will all face, climate-wise, if we don’t heed the warning signs. We’re inescapably part of our planet’s story, and “we’re not the main character.” Short chapters, a breathless narrative style, and spacious typography contribute to this work’s accessibility. Final art not seen.

Urgent and terrifying. (bibliography, source notes, index)(Nonfiction. 10-14)

Product Details

BN ID: 2940194345441
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Publication date: 09/09/2025
Edition description: Unabridged
Age Range: 10 - 13 Years
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