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Readers > Talk it Up! > Discussion guides > 2012 Oregon Reader's Choice Award Nominees > Storm in the Barn

Storm in the Barn by Matt Phelan

Discussion guide by Susan Mortimer

Summary

In this graphic novel, eleven-year-old Jack Clark lives on the family farm in 1937 Kansas during the "Dust Bowl," one of North America's worst ecological disasters. The extended drought and continual dust storms are catastrophic for everyone, as they all suffer poverty, illness, and fear for the future. Jack may be suffering from "dust dementia" as he encounters a menacing ghostly figure - one he feels may be holding back the rains.

Booktalk

Here in the Northwest we know what it's like to have seemingly everlasting rains; months of wet skies, and having to wear our raincoats and boots and hoods that still don't ever seem to keep us dry enough. Now imagine that instead of rain, it is dust coming down; brown and yellow dust swirling at us from all directions. It's making it hard for us to see and to breathe, and making lots of us sick. And then imagine that the swirling dust continues, sometimes lightly and sometimes in violent storms, but with no rain to wash it away for ten whole years. There are no more grasses or trees, no more flowers. Everything is the color of the dust.

That's how it is for Jack Clark's family. Although this story is fiction, the dust storm they lived through was real. Tens of thousands of people suffered in the American Dust Bowl in the 1930s and 40s, like Jack's family. His older sister is seriously ill from the dust. Jack's dad is bitter and angry because he's not able to provide for his family. Jack's little sister is too young to have ever been allowed to play outside except for right in front of the house in case a storm comes on. Jack's mom is almost always sad. And Jack feels completely useless, unable to help anyone.

As the tension rises in Jack's town, the dust causes some folks to act in strange or violent ways. Others, like Jack, start to see eerie things that may not be there. People in town are beginning to think that Jack's losing his mind, suffering from what they call the "dust dementia." Jack thinks they might be right, because how else can he explain the shadowy and terrifying figure he's been seeing in the neighbor's barn? But if it's what Jack thinks it is, facing up to this fright may be the only way to drive away the dust.

201 pages, 4th grade and up

Discussion questions

Warning! Some of the questions contain key elements of the plot. Do not read if you don't want to know what happens!

  1. How does the graphic novel format help you to understand the story in a way that a book with few, if any, illustrations might not?
  2. Matt Phelan, the author and illustrator of this book, uses mostly dusty browns, yellows, and grays, though there are spurts of blues, greens, pinks, and reds. How did the colors make you feel? Why does Phelan use different colors for different parts of the story?
  3. Why is the gang of local boys picking on Jack? Did your feelings about them change when they participated in and then reacted to the rabbit slaughter (pp. 122-135)?
  4. Why does the owner of the local cafe tell Jack stories of another boy named Jack?
  5. Jack's older sister is kept in bed with "dust pneumonia" and Jack spends a lot of time sitting in her bed with her talking. How do they help each other?
  6. Why is Jack's dad so angry? Why won't he let Jack help him out (like with the car or with the rabbit slaughter)?
  7. Why did Phelan portray the "storm in the barn" the way he did? If the monster represents rain, shouldn't he be a good thing and not terrifying? Why or why not?
  8. How does Jack show his bravery throughout the story; as he faces the bullies, the anger and disappointment from his dad, his sister's illness, and the storm in the barn? Why does Jack continue to go to the barn and face up to the ghostly figure?

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