CrabbyPatty's Reviews > Cimarron Girl

This book tells the tale of a fictional family from Cimarron, Oklahoma, who eventually move to California, after enduring the Dust Bowl years. The book is beautiful - lovely sepia-toned illustrations paired with short chapters from years 1925 through 1937, followed by photographs of the era commissioned by the Farm Security Administration.

The narratives are lean and tight, and the words are powerful in their sparseness. The too-short drizzles of rain are described as "It might as well have been tears falling in a sandbox ...." In telling of a boy who gets lost in a dust storm and chokes under the dirt, Abigail says "By then, I was old enough to know nothing could fix that kind of sadness. Going home, I though a lot about Cody, his family, and how scared he must have been in that darkness. Then I did cry in front of Momma and Poppa."

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.