The Great American Dust Bowl by Don Brown

The Great American Dust Bowl
Written & Illustrated by Don Brown
Houghton Mifflin. 2013
ISBN: 9780547815503
Grades 5 and up
I borrowed this book from my local public library.

Using a graphic format, Don Brown tells the story of the great dust bowl, the worst environmental catastrophe our country has even seen that took place during the 1930’s.

For thousands of years the area we call The Great Plains were in perfect balance. That is, until the pioneers came and settled the land. They killed off the Bison, plowed under the grass and cut down what few trees there were, leaving the soil without any protection. Then, in 1931, the rains stopped and the misery of the southern plains deepened.

All the gloom and misery and hopelessness are present on the faces and in the landscape in Brown’s illustrations, done in pen & ink with digital paint. Back matter includes a selected bibliography and source notes. A solid addition for all libraries.

Pair this with The Storm in the Barn, a graphic novel by Matt Phelan, The Dust Bowl Through the Lens : how photography revealed and helped remedy a national disaster by Martin W. Sandler, Children of the Dust Days by Karen Mueller Coombs, Dust Bowl!: the 1930’s black blizzards by Richard H. Levey, and Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse.