Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction: The Storm in the Barn (Hardcover)

from sbloom42

The art in this book is amazing. Grainy, blurry, brown tones brilliantly convey the dry choking dustiness of the Dust Bowl. The colorful, crisp drawings of memories and stories, which provide a visual link to Frank Baum's Oz series and to its presence in the text, are a sharp and welcome contrast...

from amandabock

I feel so woefully uncool because I don't automatically love graphic novels. I find them lacking in depth, and I can't always tell what's going on. But I'm also willing to admit the problem might be with me and not with them. Liked the story. Like the artwork. Had heard all the hype. Left me feel...

from BookConcierge

Phelan has illustrated other books, including a Newbery Medal winner. This is his first attempt at a graphic novel. Inspired by the “stark photography of Dorothea Lange and Arthur Rothstein” he decided to focus on the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. It's a little bit of historical fiction, mixed with fan...

from elenchus

Here's another book which caught my eye for its illustrations, initially the cover and then its internal monochrome sketches (blue or sepia palette, colour used rarely and then to emphasize emotion). What appears at first to be an historical picturebook on Dust Bowl-era small town living contains...

from sassafras

A tale of the Dust Bowl, told from the point of view of an eleven-year old boy. It has been four years since rain last fell on this small Kansas town and the toll it has taken on the town and its people is clear. Jack's sister is ill and there have been no crops to tend since the rain stopped fal...