Book Review: The Strom in the Barn

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.