Migrant Mother

Migrant Mother: How a Photograph Defined the Great Depression Don Nardo

You know the photograph. Even if you didn't know the name of it, you've seen that photo before. It's everywhere. If you've ever read or looked at anything about the Depression, about the Dust Bowl, about migrant workers, her face is there.

She has a name. For years it was lost to time-- photographer Dorothea Lange never thought to ask. Florence Owen Thompson.

She hated that photo. She hated the story that went with it-- "Destitute in a pea-pickers came, because of the failure of the early pea crop. The people had just sold their tent in order to buy food." Thompson and her family were poor and they were migrant workers. They didn't live in the pea-pickers camp where Lange took the picture, nor had they just sold their tent. Their car broke down on the highway. The boys went into town to get it fixed and Thompson set up a quick lean-to right before Lange arrived on the scene. But beyond the factual errors, Thompson felt that it reduced her and her family to a stereotype and she was upset that she never saw any money from the photo. (Lange was working for the government, so everything created was automatically public domain. Lange never saw direct money from the photo, either, although it certainly helped her career.)

But more than telling the stories of Lange and Thompson, this slim volume discusses the Depression itself, the artistry of the composition of the photograph, and explores why it resonated so well at the time and today. It also explores the impact the photo made. If nothing else, when it ran in the newspaper a few days later, food relief was sent to the starting pea-pickers. Thompson and her family were long gone by that point, but other starting workers were still there. While I love learning the real story behind the photo, I also really appreciated the analysis of why it works and why it works so well.

Several of Lange's other Depression-era photographs are included as well.


Book Provided by... the publisher, for Cybils consideration

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Moon Over Manifest

Moon Over Manifest Clare Vanderpool

Abilene's father has a new job and so he sends her to live with a preacher in Manifest. Abilene quickly learns that Shady isn't your average preacher and that Manifest holds secrets that may point to her father and why he sent her away. While working for Miss Sadie, a Hungarian fortune teller, Abilene starts to hear the story of Manifest 20 years ago.

It's two stories in one-- Abilene's story in 1936 as she makes friends and searches out the past, and Manifest's story in 1917.

This is going to sound weird, but... Abilene's story reminds me a bit of Pollyanna (and I mean that in the BEST way possible. Hot damn did I love that movie as a kid. Even more, I loved the Disney TV movie, Polly.) But it has that same sort of "abandonded child comes to town and heals it of past hurts" feel to it. I loved Abilene's friendship with Lettie and Ruthanne. I loved Shady and Miss Sadie and, most of all, Sister Redempta. I loved how, even though the Depression is there, this isn't a book about the Depression.

The 1917 story has a bit of "orphan saves town!" feel to it to, but it ends with the hurts that Abilene has to fix. I loved the way the town banded together, how they bonded over their immigrant status instead of letting culture and linguistics divide them. I loved the Temperance society and the bootleggers, and the running gag of Miss Velma T blowing up the chemistry lab mixing her elixirs. Also, WWI doesn't hurt. Although... there's one point where Ned is saying that he doesn't know what country he's from, and he could be French or German or even from Czechoslovakia. Except that in 1917, Czechoslovakia didn't exist yet-- it was part of the dismantling of Austria-Hungary after the war. I know that's being nitpicky, but errors like that pull me right out of a story. Because I see that and think "wait, what? no... that's not right" but then I spend the next 30 minutes researching that bit of information and not reading the story. It takes a very strong story to let me fall back in after something like that. This one did.

While I got into right away, it took me awhile before I stopped demanding that it prove itself to me. Prove to me why you're worthy of the Newbery! Prove to me you're more awesome than One Crazy Summer! PROVE IT! PROVE IT NOW! One Crazy Summer still gets my vote for Newbery, but I know why Moon Over Manifest was chosen. It made me laugh and broke my heart and left me with one lingering questions... did Abilene ever get the compass back from Miss Sadie? Did she want it back, in the end?

Book Provided by... my local library

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Year of the Historical: Storm in the Barn

The Storm in the Barn Matt Phelan

This largely wordless graphic novel shows Jack, a young boy growing up in Dust Bowl Kansas. He can't help on the farm that's not growing anything. His sister is very ill with dust pneumonia, and the town bullies keep beating him up. In this bleak landscape, he thinks he might be seeing something in the neighbor's abandoned barn...

I liked this and I didn't. It's a fantasy. There are huge not-true fantastical elements to this. And... as a story, it didn't really work for me. In general, I'm ok with attributing various historical events to supernatural reasons (Hello Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell! Or Soulless!) but it just didn't work here and I can't quite put my finger on why.

That said, it is beautiful book.  The muted, hazy pictures of brown, brown, brown, some muddy blue really convey the bleakness of the landscape and all that dust dust dust. When someone's telling a story or a memory, something that doesn't take place in the dust, colors become bright and lines crisp. Then it's back to the hazy endless brown. I could look at this book for hours.

Also, I love the juxtaposition of Ozma of Oz, being stranded on the desert, being far from Kansas. Only Jack's Kansas is the Endless Desert. My only question is WHY is there no mention in the book about where these long quotations come from? It doesn't necessarily have to be in the story, but you'd think it would appear on the copyright page (such as "Quotations from Ozma of Oz (c) L. Frank Baum.") The closest we get is when the author's note says that the Wizard of Oz movie would come out two years after this book comes place.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Year of the Historical/ Poetry Friday

Snow

Had to check
yesterday morning
to make sure that was
snow
on the ground,
not dust.
But you can't make a dustball
pack together
and slam against the side of the barn, and
echo across the fields.
So I know
it was snow.

Out Of The Dust Karen Hesse

So, I wanted to read this for a few reasons:

1. It's one of Silvey's 100 Best Books for Children*

2. It's a Newbery winner! And won 80 bajillion other awards!

3. A lot of the schools that the kids I work with attend assign this, so I thought I should read it too.

So, if you're like me and haven't read it yet, it's a verse novel that takes place in Oklahoma in the Great Depression. Billie Jo likes apples and playing the piano. It's the piano that gives her most of her joy in life. Then, there's an accident that kills her mother and leaves Billie Jo's hands badly burned and mangled, making her unable to play.

I really liked the fact that while the Depression and Dust play a huge part of this book (it's a big part of daily life) it's not the actual focus of the book. The book is about Billie Jo learning to recover physically and emotionally from the accident. I also like that Billie Jo's family stayed in Oklahoma and didn't move west.

That said... eh. When this came out in 1997, verse novels were really new and cutting edge. But, there isn't a lot of poetry here. I can see why this book is assigned a lot and I can see why it won all the awards it did, but if it were to come out today, I'm not sure it would do the same.

Poetry Friday round up is over at Liz in Ink (hey did you know she wrote the Caldecott honor book this year, All the World)? How cool is that? Also, it's a poem, and as it is Friday...

*OMG. I typed "Best books for Children" in the associates search window for that link and the first hit was this. I threw up a little in my mouth. And died inside.

Book provided by... my local library

But, seems I'm talking about the Dust Bowl, let's work in another review!

Years of Dust Albert Marrin

This was a Cybil's nominee and a nonfiction book for middle grade readers about the Dust Bowl. I think it would pair well with Out of the Dust.

Most noticeably, it's visually stunning. There are many photographs, many of them full-page, of the time period, all in sepia tones that evoke the dust and landscape. I was most struck by the many photographs of huge walls of dust coming towards the photographer.

Years of Dust tries to be many things-- American history, environmental history and warning, science book about dust storms, coffee table picture book... and often, it's just trying to do too much and loses focus. I wanted it to do a lot less, so it would in the end, do a lot more. It's beautiful to look at, but a little "eh" to read.

I also suggest you read Debbie Reese's post about the book. Marrin does largely ignore Native Americans in his history of the American West. And, when he does talk about them, it isn't good.

Book Provided by... the publisher, for Cybils consideration

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.