In light of the recent weather events we had here in Northeast Ohio, I was inspired to blog about books featuring storms as a major plot element.
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
As Hurricane Katrina bears down on Bois Sauvage, the Batiste family tries to prepare while dealing with poverty and other problems for each of the 4 children. Randall is hoping for a scholarship to a basketball camp which may open the door to college for him. Skeetah is the proud owner of a pit bull that has just given birth, and he needs to keep her and her puppies alive. Esch is a 15 year old who has just discovered that she is pregnant. And 7 year old Junior is just trying to grow up, not remembering the mother who died giving birth to him, but missing her all the same. Their father is the one who is taking the hurricane warnings most seriously, but he’s a heavy drinker and largely absent in the lives of his children. Told over the course of the twelve days leading up to Hurricane Katrina’s landfall and ending when the storm does, Salvage the Bones is a gritty story of survival and family brought to life by Ward’s poignant writing.
Falling to Earth by Kate Southwood
March 18, 1925. The day begins as any other rainy, spring day in the small settlement of Marah, Illinois. But the town lies directly in the path of the worst tornado in US history, which will descend without warning midday and leave the community in ruins. By nightfall, hundreds will be homeless and hundreds more will lie in the streets, dead or grievously injured. Only one man, Paul Graves, will still have everything he started the day with –– his family, his home, and his business, all miraculously intact Based on the historic Tri-State tornado, Falling to Earth follows Paul Graves and his young family in the year after the storm as they struggle to comprehend their own fate and that of their devastated town, as they watch Marah resurrect itself from the ruins. You’re shown a perspective that that’s not considered often: survivors of huge catastrophes and what happens afterwards.
The Children’s Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin
The morning of January 12, 1888, was unusually mild, following a punishing cold spell. It was warm enough for the homesteaders of the Dakota Territory to venture out again, and for their children to return to school without their heavy coats-leaving them unprepared when disaster struck. At the hour when most prairie schools were letting out for the day, a terrifying, fast-moving blizzard blew in without warning. Schoolteachers as young as sixteen were suddenly faced with life and death decisions- Keep the children inside, to risk freezing to death when fuel ran out, or send them home, praying they wouldn’t get lost in the storm? Based on actual oral histories of survivors, this gripping novel follows the stories of Raina and Gerda Olsen, two sisters, both schoolteachers-one becomes a hero of the storm and the other finds herself ostracized in the aftermath. This book will make you feel good that you live in a time where you can go online or check your weather app to keep up to date with current weather conditions!