Tall tale. Thriller. Gripping historical fiction. This artful, sparely told graphic novel — a tale of a boy in Dust Bowl America — w...
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Nov 29, 2010
Nicola
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A combination of historical fiction and fantasy/folklore make up this strange tale that takes place during the American Dust Bowl of the 1930s. A family has been suffering for four years now without rain. The eldest daughter has dust pneumonia, the youngest has never seen rain, the father cannot work the farm on his own, the mother realizes they must pull up stakes and move and now 11yo Jack, our hero, has been too young to help around the farm as he grew over the years. He thinks he is a klutz
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Apr 19, 2011
Becky
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So, I wanted to love this with the same kind of passion I have for The Arrival, but I didn't quite. I give it three and a half stars. I like its unusual genre: historical fiction in graphic novel format, with a twist of tall tale and the incorporation of some of the Jack tales and "The Wizard of Oz." Maybe it was Matt Phelan's very soft illustrations (you've seen them in "The Higher Power of Lucky"; little sister Mabel is cute as a button) that belied the dark thriller hiding
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Nov 28, 2011
nancy
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Thank goodness for the unreliable F train! It afforded me the luxury of poring over The Storm in the Barn for at least an hour last night! Not sure exactly why, but I had a lump in my throat the entire time I was reading this. I felt like Matt was carefully leading me somewhere and I was content to be drawn in and ushered along. Some of the sweetest panels for me were where Jack was talking with his sister who is sick with dust pneumonia. Their quiet moments as they read the Wizard of Oz togethe
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Feb 07, 2012
Monica!
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Growing up in Kansas in the middle of the Dust Bowl, Jack is having a seriously crappy childhood. He’s constantly being beat up by the neighborhood gang, his father is depressed and considering moving the family anywhere other than where they are, his older sister is dying of “dust pneumonia,” his younger sister dances in dust piles, and his neighbors are fleeing the area or falling back on superstition to end the drought or participating in mass rabbit cullings ostensibly as a way to save thei
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Dec 15, 2011
Mark
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"'You got older, but the farm didn't. The dust stopped everything - except you getting older. It's not your fault that there was nothing for you to do, nothing for you to show us how valuable you are to the farm . . . I've thought about this, Jack. Mabel was just a squirt - still is. But you ...when the rain went away, it took away your chance to grow up.'"
Jack is eleven, and lives with his family on their once-prosperous farm in Kansas. These are the Dust Bowl years, and the More...
Jack is eleven, and lives with his family on their once-prosperous farm in Kansas. These are the Dust Bowl years, and the More...
Sep 25, 2011
Alma
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Phelan, Matt. The Storm in the Barn. Candlewick Press. 2009. 230 pp. ISBN: 0763636185.
Genre: Graphic Novel, Folklore
Rating: 3.75 Stars. Takes place in 1937, in Kansas, during the Dust Bowl.
Summary: Jack is 11 years old, dealing with the hardships of the Dust Bowl, his sister's illness, bullies, & feeling like he is not living up to his father's expectations.
Main Characters: Jack, 11 years old, believed to possibly have 'dust dementia.'
Mabel is Jack's More...
Genre: Graphic Novel, Folklore
Rating: 3.75 Stars. Takes place in 1937, in Kansas, during the Dust Bowl.
Summary: Jack is 11 years old, dealing with the hardships of the Dust Bowl, his sister's illness, bullies, & feeling like he is not living up to his father's expectations.
Main Characters: Jack, 11 years old, believed to possibly have 'dust dementia.'
Mabel is Jack's More...
Sep 17, 2011
Tenille
rated it: 
I just finished reading the Storm in the Barn. I am not usually a fan of graphic novels, but I this wordless picuture book captured and stirred some pretty complicated feelings as I turned each page. There are deep thematic messages that would stretch a kids thinking; although, I'm not sure that 9 & 10 year olds could understand it. I'm not even sure if I understood it!
The book has a sinister feel to it, and I was intrigued. The father's curse words will definitely be an issue; howeve More...
The book has a sinister feel to it, and I was intrigued. The father's curse words will definitely be an issue; howeve More...
Jun 23, 2011
Natalee
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From the jacket flap:
In 1937 Kansas, eleven-year-old Jack Clark faces his share of ordinary challenges: local bullies, his father's failed expectations, a little sister with an eye for trouble. But he also has to deal with the effects of the Dust Bowl, including rising tensions in his small town and the spread of a shadowy illness. A case of the new "dust dementia" would certainly explain who (or what) Jack has glimpsed in the abandoned Talbot barn-- a sinister figure with a face More...
In 1937 Kansas, eleven-year-old Jack Clark faces his share of ordinary challenges: local bullies, his father's failed expectations, a little sister with an eye for trouble. But he also has to deal with the effects of the Dust Bowl, including rising tensions in his small town and the spread of a shadowy illness. A case of the new "dust dementia" would certainly explain who (or what) Jack has glimpsed in the abandoned Talbot barn-- a sinister figure with a face More...
Mar 31, 2011
Mary Beth
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The Storm in the Barn is a compelling and imaginative mix of American history, folklore and graphic illustration, telling the story of an 11-year-old boy in 1937 Kansas, and his encounter with a mysterious, threatening man who is hiding out in an abandoned barn. A man with bag that rumbles and flashes. A man with a face like rain.
The boy, Jack, is living at the end of what we know as the Dust Bowl era. His family and his entire community is suffering physically, mentally and emoti More...
The boy, Jack, is living at the end of what we know as the Dust Bowl era. His family and his entire community is suffering physically, mentally and emoti More...
Feb 01, 2011
Karen
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I had mixed reactions to this graphic novel about a timid boy living with his agriculturally-dependent family during the Dust Bowl Era. It hasn't rained since he was seven; he's now eleven and a sadder face on a child you never did see. His older sister has some kind of breathing disorder caused by all the dust and our hero has been accused of suffering from dust dementia. His father writes him off as useless and he is often the victim of bullying by the town thugs. So when he sees the spiri
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Dec 08, 2010
Chris
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Phelan Matt. The Storm in the Barn (2009)
The Storm in the Barn is a graphic novel about an 11 year old boy, Jack, living on a farm in Kansas during the 1930s. It is the time of the Dust Bowl and Jack and his family are suffering from the effects of the dust storms and lack of rain. His father is sullen and angry, his mother is sad, his older sister, Dorothy, is ailing from dust pneumonia and his younger sister, Mabel, has never seen rain. When he sees mysterious lights and then an e More...
The Storm in the Barn is a graphic novel about an 11 year old boy, Jack, living on a farm in Kansas during the 1930s. It is the time of the Dust Bowl and Jack and his family are suffering from the effects of the dust storms and lack of rain. His father is sullen and angry, his mother is sad, his older sister, Dorothy, is ailing from dust pneumonia and his younger sister, Mabel, has never seen rain. When he sees mysterious lights and then an e More...
Nov 20, 2010
Jessica
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Nov 17, 2010
Margaret H.
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Feb 28, 2010
Erica
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I had heard fantastic things about this graphic novel, but thought it was just so-so. The illustrations are beautiful -- soft watercolor imbuing everything with washes of ochre, greys and blues-- but the story didn't work.
Set in the Dustbowl of 1937, Jack, a young boy raised on a farm, is the victim of bullies, the weather, and a family struggling to survive (in the case of his sister, literally). He escapes into town to hear stories from a local merchant, or reads with his sister fr More...
Set in the Dustbowl of 1937, Jack, a young boy raised on a farm, is the victim of bullies, the weather, and a family struggling to survive (in the case of his sister, literally). He escapes into town to hear stories from a local merchant, or reads with his sister fr More...
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Feb 16, 2010
Josiah
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Matt Phelan uses the same inspired type of artwork that he fashioned in The Higher Power of Lucky to bring to life this mystical story set in the turbulent Dust Bowl days of the 1930s.
Readers of the Newbery Medal winner Out of the Dust will recognize the harsh setting, albeit is a different state. Matt Phelan brilliantly evokes the suffocating bleakness of the dust storm darkness all through this engaging graphic novel, setting the stage for the finer points of the dramatic plot.
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Readers of the Newbery Medal winner Out of the Dust will recognize the harsh setting, albeit is a different state. Matt Phelan brilliantly evokes the suffocating bleakness of the dust storm darkness all through this engaging graphic novel, setting the stage for the finer points of the dramatic plot.
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Jan 06, 2010
Abby
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This gem of a historical graphic novel just won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction and I am not surprised one bit. Jack is a scrawny 11-year-old in 1937 Kansas. Since the dust took over, he's had no way to prove himself useful to his family (he should be a strapping farm boy, but... no farm...). The town boys pick on him, his older sister has taken ill, and all looks hopeless. But when Jack sees a strange light coming from the neighbor's abandoned barn, he starts to investigate. Thoug
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Jan 01, 2010
Jennifer
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The Storm in the Barn is unlike any other graphic novel I've ever read. Set in the Kansas of the Dust Bowl in 1937, it's the story of 11-year-old Jack who discovers a mystery in an abandoned barn on a neighboring farm. I was intrigued with this book when the library purchased it. All the odds are stacked against poor Jack--his father seems to resent his usefulness around their failing farm; his sister is gravely ill with the "Dust pneumonia" that killed so many children in this peri
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Oct 29, 2009
Jan
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A PG-13 graphic novel set in the 1930s Dust Bowl, but with a tall tale/folklore-type story of a sinister storm character who withholds rain from the land. Jack is a boy without purpose in this dusty farmland where little can grow. Boys in town bully Jack, so he is a loner. He drifts aimlessly, always acted upon by others, but not making any difference in life. The pencil and watercolor wash drawings almost choke the reader with the clouds of dust over the arid, parched plains. Everything is gray
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Oct 25, 2009
Eva
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Young Jack is the hero of our tale. Picked on by bullies and deemed useless by his careworn dad, he is a caring and helpful brother to his sisters, one of whom has "dust pneumonia" and must spend her days in bed under a draped cloth, reading her Oz books (this is Kansas, after all). When an abandoned barn on the neighboring property begins emitting a periodic strange light at night, Jack warily investigates - and soon comes in contact with a moist and hostile creature who seems in some
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Sep 23, 2009
Kelly
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I was familiar with some of Matt Phelan's earlier work – picture books like The Very Hairy Bear by Alice Schertle and A Box Full of Kittens by Sonia Manzano, middle grade novels like The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron and Eileen Spinelli's novel in verse, Where I Live. But just yesterday, the UPS man brought me a package containing something new and terribly exciting indeed: The Storm in the Barn, a graphic novel written and illustrated by Matt Phelan. According to the publisher, the book
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Sep 21, 2009
Nicole
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Creepy. Wonderfully creepy. I had to read it through twice in order to fully grasp the multiple layers of story-plot-character twistiness. The author's note at the end helped clear my foggy head and allowed me to appreciate the full brilliance of the book with my second reading.
Granted, the characters were of the stock variety but I sure did love that rain man...guy...creature...god...whatever he was. The art was a bit too sweet for my tastes (chubby cheecks and dot eyes) but we More...
Granted, the characters were of the stock variety but I sure did love that rain man...guy...creature...god...whatever he was. The art was a bit too sweet for my tastes (chubby cheecks and dot eyes) but we More...
Aug 23, 2009
Kathy
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In the dust bowl of the 1930s, 12-year-old Jack feels useless at home and against the town bullies, but a storekeeper's Jack tales spur him to take on the monster in a neighbor's abandoned barn and release the rain that had not fallen for 5 years.
This splendid graphic novel is a modern Jack tale, with more motivation shown than the traditional stories offer but the same kind of derring-do. Phelan manages to combine a keen and foreboding sense of the time (including his sister, coughing wi More...
This splendid graphic novel is a modern Jack tale, with more motivation shown than the traditional stories offer but the same kind of derring-do. Phelan manages to combine a keen and foreboding sense of the time (including his sister, coughing wi More...
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Aug 14, 2009
Elizabeth
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Do Americans like to romanticize the past too much? Sometimes it feels that way. We keep idly wondering about those “simpler times” when the world felt slower and more measured. We conveniently forget about the hardships, the blood, the pain, or we never remember them at all. Matt Phelan, however, will never be accused of romanticizing the Dust Bowl. An illustrator by trade, Phelan has come out with his very first graphic novel for kids. A measured, handsome volume, The Storm in the Barn i
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Aug 07, 2010
Jacki
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Were I to base my review solely on the art, this book would easily nab five stars. It's an incredibly beautiful and expressive piece in that arena, with the use of color and the amazingly rendered facial expressions lingering in the mind long after the book is closed.
Unfortunately, the story never gels. While the historical elements were both poignant and well-delivered, the main story of Jack versus the King of Storms lacked development. The use of American tall tales is a great tou More...
Unfortunately, the story never gels. While the historical elements were both poignant and well-delivered, the main story of Jack versus the King of Storms lacked development. The use of American tall tales is a great tou More...
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Jun 10, 2010
GORGEOUS artwork in this one! It definitely deserves to be on the list simply for this reason. It looks to me like watercolor and pen, primarily. The use of color is fantastic - the Dust Bowl scenes are all muted, neutral colors, while scenes from the past or from the imagination are vibrant. Also, is there a certain irony in using watercolors to tell this story? i.e. Phelan tells a story of dust, dryness, and drought with a medium that needs water to come alive. Wonder if this was a consc
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Oct 10, 2011
Mark
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"The Storm in the Barn" tells the story of Jack and his family, farmers trying to survive the dust bowl in the 1930s. A clever mix of historical fiction and folklore, the graphic novel both educates and entertains and is a sure must read for adults and young adults who are fans of the genre. Spoilers will be included, be forewarned.
As I stated earlier, there is this interplay between history and folklore, the narrative playing out true to history with an added mix of fantasy More...
As I stated earlier, there is this interplay between history and folklore, the narrative playing out true to history with an added mix of fantasy More...
Jan 24, 2010
Shannon
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I'm a sucker for this format of storytelling. This book had a lot of Caldecott buzz, but alas, got no love. Matt Phelan's illustrations are amazing, in my humble opinion.
an aside:
the week I read this, I had gone to Borders seeking The Girl who Played w/ Fire but they only had it in hardcover and I was broke, so i passed on it, and was attracted to (how do these things happen?) The Well and the Mine - which takes place during the Depression- by Gin Phillips- who happens to be More...
an aside:
the week I read this, I had gone to Borders seeking The Girl who Played w/ Fire but they only had it in hardcover and I was broke, so i passed on it, and was attracted to (how do these things happen?) The Well and the Mine - which takes place during the Depression- by Gin Phillips- who happens to be More...
Oct 08, 2009
Lora
rated it:
I love graphic novels that divert from the typical superhero comic book format and that is exactly what this book does. It takes a moment from U.S. history and tells the story beautifully with a bit of a magical element.
Jack is an eleven year old boy living in the midwest during the Dust Bowl. He's picked on, has a sick sister, and watching his entire community shrink in despair from all the dust. He soon discovers something in an abandon barn that just may help, but people start More...
Jack is an eleven year old boy living in the midwest during the Dust Bowl. He's picked on, has a sick sister, and watching his entire community shrink in despair from all the dust. He soon discovers something in an abandon barn that just may help, but people start More...
Apr 19, 2011
Eileen
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Jack is an 11 year old boy living in Kansas during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Jack's family has not seen rain for four years, and they are beginning to suffer. Crops will not grow, his sister is suffering from dust pneumonia, and Jack questions if the things he sees in a neighbors barn are real or if he is suffering from dust dementia. The failed crops and lack of rain have hindered Jack's ability to prove himself a man. Will Jack trust his heart and be a hero for the town that is dyi More...
Jan 22, 2010
Desiree
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It's about a boy growing up in Kansas in the Dust Bowl years. Times are hard because of a number of factors that I won't go into, because it reads so quick that I fear I'd give it away.
His neighbor's abandoned bard gives of a eclipsing (that a word? :)) radiant light, so he goes to investigate only to find a mysterious, shady figure that appears to be part precipitation. He's accused of dust dimentia, and determined to prove everyone wrong and find out if he can save his town, he investig More...
His neighbor's abandoned bard gives of a eclipsing (that a word? :)) radiant light, so he goes to investigate only to find a mysterious, shady figure that appears to be part precipitation. He's accused of dust dimentia, and determined to prove everyone wrong and find out if he can save his town, he investig More...
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