Illustrations by Rob Dunlavey
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade
Release Date: July 14, 2015
As the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina has come and gone, there has been a steady stream of hurricane related children's books. From picture books to young adult and everything in between. This particular story sifts through the experiences of animals in the bayou and how they react and whether the storms. For me the story was a bit deceiving though. In this story the animals just hunker down and wait out the storm. Sure, some trees are blown over and whatnot, but it read more like a bedtime story than one marking a natural disaster. Where was the saltwater intrusion that happens to bogs and inland fresh water? Or the birds that are blown from trees and sometimes hundreds of miles away from their homes? What about fresh water flooding or turbidity? It felt very much like the story was suggesting that when hurricanes come, animals just tuck into their homes and everything is all right, which felt do disingenuous for non-fiction.
The illustrations are lovely and do capture the darkness of a hurricane, but it wasn't enough for me to really embrace this book.
0 comments:
Post a Comment