Dust Girl

Dust Girl: The American Fairy Trilogy Book 1 Sarah Zettel

Callie has always known she was half-black. That's why her mother made sure to keep her out the sun, so she could pass as white--something crucial for survival in their small Kansas town in the 1920s and 30s. Callie's mother holds out hope that Callie's father will return, but some things are weird.

Why doesn't her father return and why is her mother so certain he will? Her father was a pianist and his piano is still there, why won't Callie's mother let her play it?

And then... Callie does play it. And the biggest dust storm yet comes and takes her mother away. And that's when the fairies find Callie, because Callie's not just half-black, she's half-fairy, and her father's refusal to marry a princess of the Seelie court in honor of Callie's mother makes Callie (a) a princess of the Unseelie court and heir to the throne (b) a target (c) a pawn in a political game that she doesn't understand at all.

I picked this up because of Leila's review at Kirkus. She doesn't oversell it. It's a great read and a great adventure. I loved the distinctly Modern American takes of the Seelie and Unseelie courts and the role race plays. The setting is wonderful and I love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love the role that music, especially Dust Bowl era folk and blues, plays in this story. Not sure I'll EVER hear "Midnight Special" the same way again (and that's a good thing.)

Zettel is an adult author and this is her first book for teens. It doesn't show. It doesn't fall into the usual traps of dumbing down/didactic/talking down to the reader that many books written by adult authors who want to jump on the YA bandwagon tend to fall into.

I'm very excited about Golden Girl, the second book which comes out in June. I AM NOT EXCITED BY THAT COVER. I don't 100% agree with Leila's take about the whitewash on the cover of Dust Girl (except the hair). But Golden Girl looks like a whitewash to me.


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

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