THE STORM IN THE BARN

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Phelan, Matt  (2009).  THE STORM IN THE BARN.  Massachusetts: Candlewick.  ISBN: 0763636185.

PLOT SUMMARY

Jack is an eleven-year-old boy living in Kansas in the 1930s during the dust bowl.  His small town is desperate for rain and his family is suffering their own plight as his older sister fights for her life due to the damage done to her lungs by the dust. Jack wants to help in any way he can, but his dad makes him feel worthless everytime he tries.  To add to his troubles Jack is being bullied by older boys.  One day as he tries to escape the bullies he hides out in an abandoned barn.  In the barn he sees a suspicious puddle and decides to investigate.  He comes face to face with a mysterious figure thats face looks like rain.  Jack has to find a way to release this monster and bring life back to his town and his family.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

The Storm in the Barn is a crative mix of historical fiction, fantasy, and graphic novel.  It is an excellent choice for those readers turned off by history.  The story contains very few carefully chosen words so much of the excitement is in the pictures within the comic book like frames.  Phelan uses color (and the lack of) to truly capture the setting and mood in each scene.  Much of the book is in washed out yellow and brown tones that reflect the dreary covering of dust that envelopes the town.  However, he also uses dark blues and gray to illustrate the frightening rain monster that Jack discovers in the abandoned shed.  Red is used to show the bloodbath created when the men of the town gather up all of the jack rabbits and massacre them to protect their remaining crops. 

Phelan does an excellent job of conveying the desperation and hopelessness felt by those suffering from the effects of the dust bowl.  He creates a hero in young Jack when he is able to restore the rain monster to the sky and breath hope back into the land.

REVIEW EXERPTS

School Library Journal (September 01, 2009)- “A complex but accessible and fascinating book.”

Publishers Weekly (August 17, 2009)- “The big novelty here is the Dust Bowl setting, and Phelan's art emphasizes the swirling, billowing clouds of fine grit that obscure even nearby objects.”

Booklist (August 01, 2009)- “Phelan turns every panel of this little masterpiece into a spare and melancholy window into another era, capturing an unmistakable sense of time and place…”

CONNECTIONS

• Have students write a short story using comic strips.
• Read other books set during the Dust Bowl such as Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse.
• Have students view pictures and videos about the Dust Bowl http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/water_02.html