I Am A Tornado, a great read-aloud illustrated book that seeds STEM curiosity

Illustrated books teach best when it’s done via a metaphor that’s so obvious it makes adults question if the book is really about what they think it’s about. I Am A Tornado by Drew Beckmeyer is an illustrated book that completely fits that bill. The book is obviously about a tornado, in a meteorological sense, and presented at a level for early elementary school ages to enjoy. The book is an over-the-top metaphor about how kids can become out of control when their emotions aren’t in check. Isn’t it obvious? I Am A Tornado is a mix of the two ideas and is presented with infectious, energetic art that brims with movement and fun. No, I Am A Tornado is almost certainly an age-appropriate book on the whirling wind that kicks up in the summer months.

The art is what will immediately attract ages four through eight. Beckmeyer has created the art using the same multi-dimensional look by cutting, pasting, painting, and then pasting some more on top of it. The effect is that readers of any age will identify the look of the art as akin to Eric Carle’s work. As you see the tiny pickup truck on the book’s cover you’ll be tempted to try and peel it off, as if it were a scratch-and-sniff sticker. Spoiler alert: you can’t. However, that won’t stop you from looking at the different colored mountain vistas and wondering how far away they are.

You might play this visual game within your mind’s eye all the way through the book. I Am A Tornado is not a pop-up book, but it borders on it in a way that’ll make your eyes think something 3D is happening. But wait, as the go-to infomercial saying goes, there’s more. And in this case, the more is the manner in which the text is displayed. Much like the unpredictable nature of a tornado, the text varies in size, placement, and color throughout the book.

When it starts the titular tornado is ten times as big as the farm animals it’s picking up. It’s ripping across the plains doing anything it wants with the animals in its wake comically saying ouch, oof, or other anthropomorphic exclamations. The tornado zooms up against a cow, who introduces itself to the readers in the same way that the tornado did. I am a cow.

What ensues is a much less malevolent version of The Hitcher, with the tornado being Rutger Hauer. The tornado picks up the cow and they start a dialogue about why it’s doing what it’s doing. This is where the science of the book comes into play. The tornado is explaining that it’s a rotating spiral of air that’s doing this because of the cold winds high in the sky and the warm air rising from the ground. That’s all good and well, but then these side winds make their presence known, and the tornado gets angrier and starts picking stuff up.

The cow agrees that all of this would make it angry also. Spinning around and picking things up makes you feel better until it physically exhausts you. It’s at that point that you just need to sit down, relax and take a breath. However, if you’re a tornado then you get smaller, lower your wind speeds, don’t pick up as many things and the cow is now much bigger than you. See, this is a book about feelings, done via a very effective metaphor of a tornado and the things around it.

I Am A Tornado is a great goodnight book. The text might be a little too much for those early elementary ages to read by themselves, but they can read most it and will love the illustrations. Those pre-k and kindergarten ages will laugh at the interplay between the cow and the tornado. They’ll lose themselves in the art, learn a little bit about how tornados are formed, tell tall tales about the time that they almost saw one, and just might draw the parallel between the out-of-control tornado and their behavior.

I Am A Tornado is by Drew Beckmeyer and is available on Antheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

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