READING LEVEL: 5.1 AR POINTS: 0.5
( Ages 12 years, grades 7-9)

A graphic historical event of the 1930's Dust Bowl for young readers. I can't stand when a story begins with "One hundred million years ago..." It has nothing to do with the dust storms. Plus, not everyone even believes the earth was formed one hundred million years ago...I sure don't. That is not what the Bible teaches. Just stick to the story. Otherwise, the story is "meh", the artwork is better. It's hard to get the feel of the true devastation in a short graphic novel. But maybe this will spark an interest to learn more when they get older. ( )

An excellent basic history of the dust bowl experience, including how and why the dust started flying, how long it lasted and what those living there did to survive. The art is done all in browns and my teeth feel gritty... ( )

3.5 stars

This is a nonfiction graphic novel depicting the “Dirty Thirties” – the dust storms that hit mostly Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Kansas. It is geared toward a YA audience. It also gives a bit of background leading up to the conditions that helped create the dust storms and the consequences to the people and farmers in the areas affected. In addition, the dust travelled to the eastern coast!

It’s short, but it has some nice (colour) illustrations, some of them coloured in so dark to represent the lack of visibility during the storms. There were even a few things I didn’t know about (or if I’ve read about them (this is likely) I’d forgotten – like the electric charges in the air). There were even a couple of real photographs included at the end, but not only 1 from a 1935 storm, but one from 2011, as well. ( )

Super quick overview of the scouring away of hundreds of millions of tons of topsoil from the American plains during the 1930s. I'm not sure how well my son conceptualizes the dust storms after reading this (I'm not sure I can wrap my head around them, either), but it was a good introduction to the time.

Apt musical accompaniment to this book, Woody Guthrie's "Dusty Old Dust": https://youtu.be/cudNm4r9NKo ( )

This is a great graphic novel about the American Dust Bowl. This would be an excellent book to teach students about American History, and it includes many detailed illustrations to give the students an image about what life was like during this time. I would use this for upper elementary or middle school students. ( )