Close to the Wind: The Beaufort Scale (review)

In the opening years of the nineteenth century, Captain Francis Beaufort of the British Navy devised a system for numbering wind strength, based on observations of the wind's effect on sea and land. Although measurable wind speed is now a component of the Beaufort scale, the original designations of 0 to 12 (from dead calm to hurricane force) still apply. Malone takes readers on a fictional cruise with midshipman William Bentley aboard the man-of-war Zephyr, bound from Naples to Barbados, as the crew encounters every condition Beaufort described. The recto of each spread features a handsome watercolor and gouache illustration of the Zephyr at sea or crew and natives in port; the verso is devoted to the Beaufort number and definition, an excerpt from William's letter to his sister, and a paragraph or two of Malone's commentary on weather, seamanship, or sailors' lore. That's an ambitious order for a picture-book format, but Malone's execution is admirable, both in its able demonstration of how Beaufort's observations apply to actual weather phenomenon and in its brief but convincing storyline. End matter includes biographical information on Beaufort, a diagram of the Zephyr under full sail, a glossary of nautical terms, and a map of Bentley's travels across the Atlantic. While this will be an effective addition to a science unit on weather, it could engross any middle-schooler who'd rather skip class and run off to sea.