Oliver's Great Big Universe: Volcanoes Are Hot!

Ages 8 to 12, Grades 3 to 7

“Mind-expanding and hilarious! I got smarter reading this!”

—Jeff Kinney, author of the international bestselling series Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Earth sciences meet Diary of a Wimpy Kid in Oliver’s Great Big Universe: Volcanoes Are Hot!, second in an original illustrated middle-grade fiction series that blends science with narrative from bestselling author-artist Jorge Cham, the Emmy Award–nominated creator of PBS’s Elinor Wonders Why After writing his first book, eleven-year-old Oliver is kind of a celebrity around school—no big deal. But when he gets caught in a cafeteria catastrophe, he quickly goes from being the “funny science kid” to one of the “Epic Barf Kids”, the result of too much explosive cherry pie in the lunchroom. Oliver is desperate to restore his reputation—and winning the science fair sounds like the perfect way for everyone to forget about the whole barf thing. There’s just one obstacle standing in his way: Ana Lía Quintero, who wins the science fair every year. Luckily, Oliver has the help of his geoscientist aunt, even though she’s a little, um, quirky (scratch that: really quirky). If Oliver has any chance of defeating his archnemesis, he’ll have to learn all about volcanic burping and bacteria farts, how Earth’s layers are basically like boba tea, and how school cliques and the solar system have a lot in common. With laugh-out-loud humor and cartoon-style illustrations from bestselling writer and the creator of PHD Comics Jorge Cham, Oliver’s Great Big Universe is a STEAM-themed, diary-style series following one kid who’s taking on the whole universe—if he can survive middle school first.

About the Author

Jorge Cham is the bestselling, Emmy-nominated creator of . . . many things: from the hit PBS kids’ show Elinor Wonders Why to the bestselling nonfiction book for adults called We Have No Idea, along with the smash podcast Daniel & Jorge Explain the Universe and the popular webcomic PHD Comics. He is, without a doubt, an expert on explaining things about the world in interesting and fun ways. He obtained his PhD in robotics from Stanford University and was an instructor and research associate at Caltech from 2003 to 2005. He is originally from Panama.