When the Wind Came

K-Gr 2–A young girl states over and over “I remember.” First she remembers her surroundings: her father shouting at cows, her mother pulling weeds, her baby brother whimpering. Then she remembers the wind, and how the whole family had to flee into the root cellar, only to emerge to find their home destroyed. While the family slowly begins to clean up after the storm, the girl blows soap bubbles—a small act which provides the family with a moment of much-needed laughter. Spare text is perfectly matched with simple illustrations in an emotionally resonant color palette: warm earth browns morph into menacing grays then into a spread that is completely black, save for two lines of white text (when the family is in the darkness of the root cellar); when the storm has passed, clear blues and greens and hints of red as the mother prepares a meal and the girl helps clean up. The message here is not a sugar-coated “everything will be fine,” but an honest acknowledgement of fear followed by unexpected moments of grace. Characters are all depicted with brown skin and dark hair.