Phelan, Matt. (2009). The storm in the barn. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. 9780763636180.
Matt Phelan’s The Storm in the Barn brings to life the harsh realities of existing during the Dust Bowl. Phelan’s graphic novel tells the story of eleven-year-old Jack Clark and his family: a disapproving father; two sisters, one sick, one mischievous; the local bullies; and a town struggling to get by during the years of dust.
The Storm in the Barn, set in Kansas in 1937, is the story of Jack’s quest to help his family and his town through these years of hardship. Jack is fighting against a farm that is forcing him to feel useless, “You got older, but the farm didn’t. The dust stopped everything – except you getting older. It’s not your fault that there was nothing for you to do, nothing for you to show us how valuable you are to the farm” (115). Throughout the story Jack works to prove to his father that he has a purpose. He attempts to help his father repair the truck, the family’s mode of planned escape from the Dust Bowl, but is instead relegated to watching after his little sister. The disapproval from his father instills a determination in Jack to put a stop to his family’s hardships. Jack clearly states that, “This must end” (138).
He must also fight off the symptoms of the new disease sweeping the plain, dust dementia. Jack is certain that the ghostly figure in the neighbor’s abandoned barn is the King of Storms – he is not going crazy. While exploring the empty barn, the home of the King of Storms, Jack discusses his state of mind with himself, “But I know I’m not sick. I’m not demented” (148). With the same vigor that Jack has adopted to prove he can be useful on the farm, Jack will also prove that what he is seeing is not just a figment of his imagination. It is Jack’s self-appointed mission to win back the respect of his father and bring rain to the town by conquering the King of Storms.
Phelan’s sparse use of words puts an emphasis on his pictures, highlighting his haunting images of life during the Dust Bowl. Phelan is able to capture the sparseness of life during a draught. His color choices, mostly grey’s with burnt oranges occasionally mixed in, create a strong image in the reader’s mind. Phelan also uses a liberal pen stroke to create a sense of an ever-present wind. The reader can imagine the constant dust being blown and the inability to escape it.
The Storm in the Barn is appropriate for upper-elementary readers through high school. The layers of Phelan’s text (the history of the Dust Bowl, Jack’s relationship with his father, the towns relationship with the dust) allow the book to be discussed at many different levels. The Storm in the Barn would work excellent as a paired text to Karen Hesse’s Out of the Dust, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Russell Freedman’s Children of the Great Depression, Martin Sandler’s The Dust Bowl Through the Lens, or any other text centered on agriculture and life in the 1930s.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World
When I was twelve years old my parents took our family on vacation to Mexico. We stayed in what was then a relatively small and non-touristy fishing town an hour south of Cancun. My father, being a history buff, was determined to bring my family to nearby Mayan ruins. We could not pass up this once in a lifetime opportunity, he said, especially when it was so close at hand.
To save money and give our itinerary the flexibility demanded by a family of five with young children, my parents decided that they would rent a car instead of buying us tickets for a chartered tour bus. My father decided to take his frugality one step farther and secure a free rental car – all he had to do was sit through a time share presentation that would last no more than an hour. No less than three hours later, my family was finally on our way to see the remains of a past civilization. Our chariot was a red compact car (designed to comfortably fit two but advertised to hold five, which is how many we squeezed in) that smelled of stale cigarette and cleaning solution.
Despite our setbacks and less than leisurely travel conditions, our trip to the ruins was uneventful. We toured, we took pictures, we learned, we had a good time. After a long day of trekking through the sun we headed back to our hotel. My brother, sister, and I were dozing in the back seat when an unexpected jolt woke us up. The car that my father had so cleverly gotten for free had a flat tire. We pulled over to the side of the Mexican highway, with cars cruising past at speeds exceeding 80 miles per hour, to change the tire. After much hassle with an old jack and a spare that was definitely not full sized, we finally made it back to our hotel. The rental company tried to charge us extra for getting a flat, after all we did use five tires instead of the normal four, but my father wouldn’t stand for it.
Reading Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World reminded my of my families adventures renting a car in Mexico. We faced troubles and adversity (long presentations, second hand smoke, flat tires) but in the end we all made it home safely.
Jennifer Armstrong does a magnificent job of creating a compelling story out of Shackleton’s adventure. She has written a non-fiction book that reads like a story but is filled with facts and true-life adventures. Armstrong sets up her story by giving the readers hints that trouble lies ahead. The title of the book, Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, is a clear indicator that something is going to go wrong as a shipwreck is not the desired result of a voyage. The suspense continues to build when Armstrong explicitly mentions that the voyage does not go as planned, but that Shackleton, being an extraordinary leader, was able to journey to safety without losing any human lives.
By creating suspense Armstrong compels the reader to keep reading. Besides the overarching theme of survival against the odds, suspense is also created in small subplots throughout the book. When The Endurance was first to set sail there was the uncertainty that the looming war brought. Would the ship be able to continue with its original mission or would it be re-commissioned as part of the British Army? Including small details and facts like this helps to create a story that is not only factual, but also highly readable and accessible.
To save money and give our itinerary the flexibility demanded by a family of five with young children, my parents decided that they would rent a car instead of buying us tickets for a chartered tour bus. My father decided to take his frugality one step farther and secure a free rental car – all he had to do was sit through a time share presentation that would last no more than an hour. No less than three hours later, my family was finally on our way to see the remains of a past civilization. Our chariot was a red compact car (designed to comfortably fit two but advertised to hold five, which is how many we squeezed in) that smelled of stale cigarette and cleaning solution.
Despite our setbacks and less than leisurely travel conditions, our trip to the ruins was uneventful. We toured, we took pictures, we learned, we had a good time. After a long day of trekking through the sun we headed back to our hotel. My brother, sister, and I were dozing in the back seat when an unexpected jolt woke us up. The car that my father had so cleverly gotten for free had a flat tire. We pulled over to the side of the Mexican highway, with cars cruising past at speeds exceeding 80 miles per hour, to change the tire. After much hassle with an old jack and a spare that was definitely not full sized, we finally made it back to our hotel. The rental company tried to charge us extra for getting a flat, after all we did use five tires instead of the normal four, but my father wouldn’t stand for it.
Reading Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World reminded my of my families adventures renting a car in Mexico. We faced troubles and adversity (long presentations, second hand smoke, flat tires) but in the end we all made it home safely.
Jennifer Armstrong does a magnificent job of creating a compelling story out of Shackleton’s adventure. She has written a non-fiction book that reads like a story but is filled with facts and true-life adventures. Armstrong sets up her story by giving the readers hints that trouble lies ahead. The title of the book, Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, is a clear indicator that something is going to go wrong as a shipwreck is not the desired result of a voyage. The suspense continues to build when Armstrong explicitly mentions that the voyage does not go as planned, but that Shackleton, being an extraordinary leader, was able to journey to safety without losing any human lives.
By creating suspense Armstrong compels the reader to keep reading. Besides the overarching theme of survival against the odds, suspense is also created in small subplots throughout the book. When The Endurance was first to set sail there was the uncertainty that the looming war brought. Would the ship be able to continue with its original mission or would it be re-commissioned as part of the British Army? Including small details and facts like this helps to create a story that is not only factual, but also highly readable and accessible.
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