In a Cave - Heather Ferranti Kinser - ★★★★.¼

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AUTHOR: Heather Ferranti Kinser
ILLUSTRATOR: Bonnie Kelso
GENRE: Children's Nonfiction
RATING: 4.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: An informative picture book, using a story to depict the wonders inside a cave. Great content, great illustrations.


The book has three characters – two children and their guide – exploring a cave. The guide explains to them the varied mind-blowing features and creatures in the dark cave that is lit up by their torches. From bats to troglobites, stalactities and stalagmites, cave popcorn and pearls, dripstone and shelfstone, the guide touches upon all the wonders seen while spelunking. When the children return home and go to bed, they dream of the beautiful things they saw that day in the cave.

The topic of the book is quite unusual, and therein lies its biggest appeal. While most picture books focus on land formations such as mountains, beaches and rivers, hardly any venture into caves. In movies too, caves are always (and rightly) portrayed as dark and dangerous places where it is easy to get lost. But with the right guide and equipment, caves can be fascinating. This book demonstrates the how and the why.

I was impressed by all the information in the story. Kids are sure to be blown away by the variety of rock structures within caves. I appreciate how the book highlighted safety precautions such as going into the cave only when accompanied by the guide and walking carefully when the footholds are slick. Plus points for having a female guide in the story.

More importantly, the story also stressed upon leaving no litter in caves and taking no rocks as souvenirs. Gotta love a book that teaches the balance between exploring nature and respecting nature.

The story is written in simple rhythmic prose in AABB scheme. I am not usually a fan of rhyming text, but the rhymes in this case are in proper metre and conducive to reading aloud. That said, the content is a bit too difficult for early readers. Because of some tough words, the book will be better suited to slightly older children, say 6-8 years. For this age group, I would have preferred the text to be in prose than in rhymes. Of course, this is just my preference. The authors have done a wonderful job with the rhymes, no denying that. No verse seems forced into place just for the sake of the rhyming scheme.

A helpful “Vo-cave-ulary” section at the end contains the glossary of all the tough spelunking terms. There is also a brilliant note by the author and the illustrator, containing some interesting cave trivia and a few general guidelines for kids interested in visiting caves.

While the content itself is worth a read, the cave illustrations make the book mind-blowing. I loved the cover with the silhouette of the three explorers against the dark cave. Even in the inside pages, every feature of the cave is brought to life by the graphics. The underground scenes appear almost magical instead of dank, gloomy or scary. I wasn’t a big fan of the art style used to draw the humans, but the rest of the graphics were gorgeous.

Recommended to little adventurers who would love to learn more about what mesmerising formations and critters lie in caves. This book would work well in a classroom for discussing geographical features of the earth.

My thanks to Gnome Road Publishing and NetGalley for the DRC of “In a Cave”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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