Nonfiction – Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp by Jerry Stanley

Based on true events in the 1930’s, this book falls into the nonfiction genre and presents a story that will captivate the readers with its gritty storyline.

This story is a compelling one about children of homeless “okie” migrant workers and the school that was built in a farming labor camp during the Dust Bowl era California. The book presents a dramatic and inspiring story  about mistreatment, lack of education and the changes that take place when people work together to make changes (Stanley, 1992). The book is illustrated with photos from the Dust Bowl to provide accurate accounts and imagery, making the story more compelling.

This story falls in to quality nonfiction as the facts are accurate and complete with a balance of fact and theory, differing in viewpoints when necessary. The scope is appropriate for its story and for the readers. It is apparent that the writer used appropriate resources and expertise to write the book. It is organized in a clearly developed manner which is presented in a logical sequence while indicating proper facts and theories. The design and format of the book is reader friendly and attractive, showing appropriate illustrations (photos) that are placed in a proper fashion. The writing presents an interesting and enthusiastic way while using appropriate terminology and rich language to keep the reader engaged (Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe, 2010, p. 306).

Questions surrounding the reading of Children of the Dust Bowl could include “How do you think the children felt by the mistreatment because of their immigration?” “Can you imagine what life would be like during the Dust Bowl?” “What do you think that you could do if you lived during the time to increase quality of life?” Since this is a nonfiction genre of book, response-centered project ideas could include a newspaper, where the children create a newspaper about the Dust-Bowl, the School raising; or any other related subjects. They could include advertisements for items during the 1930’s, as well as including editorials that would relate to the subject manner. A second project could include recipes that would reflect the life and times of this novel, where children could do research to find out what type of ingredients would have been available during the Dust-Bowl on a farming camp. They could then write an essay about each of the recipes to explain why they would make a good companion to the novel (Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe, 2010, p. 351).

I would recommend this novel to all young readers so they can see how important it is to have an education, to learn about a historical event, and to develop their sense of self. It is important for readers to be able to relate to the story, and this one surrounds a subject that many children most likely do not know about, making it a valuable read.

References

Galda, L., Cullinan, B. E., & Sipe, L. R. (2010). Literature and the Child. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cenage Learning.

Stanley, J. (1992). Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp. New York: Random House LLC.