Angels in the Dust

Angels in the Dust

This well-told tale of the hard times and grinding poverty of the dust bowl is good reading for any study of the Depression era or of America's past. The realistic paintings dramatically illustrate the events described.

School Library Journal

Teacher review on-line

This is a wonderfully written book. The story is touching. The language is expressive and descriptive. The illustrations are vivid and add much to the story. This was a great book to read aloud. It can give students a taste of life in a different time and place. Wonderful!

From Publishers Weekly

A girl faces down adversity in the heart of the '30s Dust Bowl; according to PW, pastels of the valiant heroine "reinforce the text's consciously inspirational message." Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Dark brown endpapers and the colors of earth and dust seem to seep out of the full-page illustrations as Great-grandma Annie tells of growing up in the 1930s in Oklahoma. As Annie and her sister watch, dirt fills the air, covers the fields, and has to be battled indoors and out. "Dust pneumonia" brings death to their mother and Annie takes over the housekeeping. She finds a way to water her vegetable garden despite the drought and shares the produce with struggling neighbors. A fire destroys their house and leaves them without resources. They survive, Annie remembers, by hard work, by the love between father and daughters, and by the good will of the neighbors they had helped.

"Nothing's so bad that it isn't good for something," Annie's mother once said, and her gentle and hopeful spirit lives through her children. This well-told tale of the hard times and grinding poverty of the dust bowl is good reading for any study of the Depression era or of America's past. The realistic paintings dramatically illustrate the events described.

Pair this with books like Judith Hendershot's In Coal Country (Knopf, 1987) or Faith Ringgold's Tar Beach (Crown, 1991) to show how families can strengthen their ties to one another and find courage in troubled economic times. Shirley Wilton, Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ

From Kirkus Reviews

Raven's first book for children explores life in the American Dust Bowl of the 1930s as ``Great-grandma Annie'' shares her memories of childhood. Annie lived on an Oklahoma wheat farm, ``where the land reaches out straight as a handshake.'' When the dust storms begin, forcing dirt through the boards and into the family's small house, Annie helps her sister, Bessie, write her name in the dust. That act makes Mama think that ``nothing's so bad that it isn't good for something''--the theme of the book.

After Mama dies of dust pneumonia, Annie assumes adult responsibilities: keeping house; soothing Bessie's fears with tales of how Mama, an angel, keeps watch over them; and growing a garden with the aid of an inspired tin-can water pipe. When their dried-to-tinder house burns to the ground, neighbors--also hard- pressed--pledge small sums to help the family get on their feet. An author's note fills in the historical facts, while Essley's full-bleed paintings beautifully capture the reality of a hard- but-hopeful life in a world gone to wind-blown grit. Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP

Illustrator

A freelance illustrator for twenty years, Roger Essley has illustrated five picture books and is the author/illustrator of the picture book Reunion. His artwork can be found in books, magazines, and in the collection of a number of museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art. He teaches classroom workshops and residencies and presents at national and regional conferences.

Roger Essley's Book Illustrations

1998 Oklahoma Book Award Finalist

http://www.odl.state.ok.us/ocb/98final.htm

From Booklist

Based on a true story, this picture book captures the struggle of an Oklahoma family on a Dust Bowl farm in the 1930s. It is movingly told in the voice of Great-grandma Annie who remembers herself as a girl of 12. Strong realistic pastel illustrations in shades of brown and blue show dust storms of boiling dark dirt dwarfing the family on the drought-stricken farmland. Words and pictures are so physical you can feel the grit that comes right in through the cracks of the small brown house and lies sandy and dark across the kitchen table.

Mama dies from "dust pneumonia"; a framed picture shows the family bowed in grief in the empty land. Annie makes a thriving garden, as her mother showed her, but nothing can save Papa's wheat and corn. One day the tinder-dry house burns down. Then friends and neighbors rally around, each one giving a small amount to help the family start again. In a quiet, beautiful climax, Annie realizes that they had been "growing friendships in those years of dust."

Many children might go from here to ask about their own family histories of hardship and community. Hazel Rochman

On-line review

The worst of times can bring out the best in people. Raven’s story of a family struggling through the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl is based on oral interviews with a woman from Guyman, Oklahoma.
She shared heartbreaking details of a harsh environment with dust covered food, black blizzards, death from dust pneumonia, and wildfires driven by the dryness. With wonderful detail, Raven takes children back to the 1930s and shows them that “nothing’s so bad that it isn’t good for something.”

Margot Theis Raven

"The world moves forward on the footsteps of little children." Patty S. Hill