2021 Finalist: Middle Grades Science Book

Eclipse Chaser: Science in the Moon's Shadow, by Ilima Loomis. (Photographs by Amanda Cowan). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019.

On August 21, 2017, much of America stood still and looked up as a wide swath of the country experienced totality—a full solar eclipse. Even in areas outside the path of totality, people watched in awe as the moon cast its shadow on the sun. For most, this was simply a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Not so for Shadia Habbal, who travels the world in search of solar eclipses in order to study the sun’s corona. Solar wind and storms originating in the corona can have big effects on our planet. They can disrupt technology, expose aircraft to radiation, and even influence global climate change.