It’s hot! Very hot! What’s that? HOT LAVA!!! Harry And The Hot Lava is the newest children’s book by Chris Robertson. It was just released on July 15th and is burning up the minds of young readers across the globe.
We received a review e-copy of this book in exchange for our honest review.
Harry and the Hot Lava is a fun and imaginative book. It follows Harry (inspired by Chris Robertson’s son, Benton) and his adventures throughout the house playing a game of ‘hot lava’. Have you ever played hot lava? It’s the game where you can’t step on a crack, or certain parts of the floors, etc. I remember playing a similar game in my parent’s kitchen. They had blue and yellow floor tiles and I pretended the yellow tiles were land and the blue tiles were the oceans. I couldn’t touch the blue tiles or I’d be eaten by Jaws!
Harry imagines there’s hot lava everywhere; “between the toilet and the tub…between the book case and the bed”. Hot Lava is EVERYWHERE!
You can’t escape! That is…until Mom comes to the rescue! My children’s favourite part of the book is when Chris Robertson creatively wrote himself into the book and sails his son down the lava flow.
In fact, they enjoyed it so much they tried to recreate this scene, mixed with another of Harry on his bed.
Chris conveys lots of emotion and urgency through his illustrated words along the way. That’s right, Christ Robertson is not just the author of Harry and the Hot Lava, but also the illustrator! If you enjoyed Chris’ style in My Yellow Umbrella, you’ll enjoy this book as well.
This simple and fun story is perfect for when the children want a book but you don’t have a lot of time or energy. It’s an easy reader so that Tristan is able to read it on his own or to his little sister, who is learning the words as well. And if you have more time, let your kids’ imaginations run wild with their own hot lava games!
Harry and the Hot Lava can also be a very educational book! You can use it as a base to explain some of nature’s wonders to children, and how to prepare for emergencies.
Carolyn Wilhelm of Wise Owl Factory has created some fun and educational printables to go along with Harry and the Hot Lava. Tristan did very well learning about verbs and adjectives found in Harry and the Hot Lava, and both children enjoyed colouring a picture and asking all sorts of questions about volcanoes while they were doing it. You can see Carolyn’s resource here. She even has an excellent volcano experiment to try at home.
If you like volcanoes, try making your own volcano at home or try a chocolate lava cake in a mug (dairy and egg free). If you don’t want to miss these posts, sign up for our free email delivery service, our posts straight to your inbox! And see our page of books and book activities.
Don’t delay, get your copy of Harry and the Hot Lava today!

Cheryl Carpinello says
Hot Lava (both the game and the book) are new to me! Sounds like a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing on the Kid Lit Blog Hop!
Crystal McClean says
I’m so glad I could share a new book with you 🙂 Definitely check this one out!
Tina at Mommynificent says
This looks like such a fun book! Thanks for sharing it at Booknificent Thursday last week! Hope to see you again this week.
Tina
Crystal McClean says
Be sure to get it while it’s “hot”!
Stacie Theis says
I had the privilege of reviewing this title. Chris Robertson is such a gifted author/illustrator. Harry and the Hot Lava is a wonderful story with fantastic illustrations and lots of imagination. Thanks for sharing!
Crystal McClean says
Awesome! I think it’d be fun to see inside the brains of some children’s authors! I really like Chris’ sense of humour in Harry!
C.L. Murphy says
I love the way that Chris expresses himself! This does look like a HOT book! Thanks for sharing!
Crystal McClean says
‘HOT’ indeed! There’s more action and adventure in this one. Chris has a nice range of styles.
Dena says
SUCH a cute book! We are fans of Chris Robertson in our house. Glad you liked it! I’m hopping over from the KLBH.
Crystal McClean says
So happy to hear you are fans 😉 Chris has his own style, which is hard to achieve today. Happy reading!
Jennifer Tzivia MacLeod says
Hopping by from the blog hop and I’m so glad to have discovered this book. At 6, my son may be technically a bit old for this book, but adores anything lava-related. 🙂
Crystal McClean says
My son is 6, but he loves it! He and his younger sister have been avoiding stepping on ‘hot lava’ for a month!
Catherine says
I was intrigued when I saw the name of this book, I immediately thought of volcanoes. I haven’t heard of the game but it sounds fun (as does the book).
Crystal McClean says
The kids love this fun book, and are now even more interested in volcanoes and how they work…which let to one of last night’s books on the more technical side of volcano exploration.
Tanya @Mom's Small Victories says
This looks so cute. I bet my kids would love it as we work on our goal to read 1000 kids books together. Thanks for sharing.
Crystal McClean says
That’s a lofty goal, but fantastic! Do you have a timeline for reading to your goal, or are you just enjoying the journey?
Allison says
My kids would love this book. They’re going through a hot lava phase right now 🙂
Crystal McClean says
I’m sure they would enjoy it! And at the moment it’s only $0.99 on Amazon 🙂 Have a great summer!