The Dust Bowl

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Matthew is a young boy who lives with his father and grandfather on a
prairie farm. It is a harsh existence. For the second year in a row,
drought has ruined the wheat crop. Matthew’s father thinks they should
sell the farm and move to a place where life is easier. Grandpa, who
homesteaded the land in the early part of the century, wants to stay. He
tells Matthew about the “Dirty Thirties,” when eight consecutive
years of drought turned the country into a dust bowl. While many farmers
gave up and moved away, a few determined ones, like Matthew’s
grandparents, stayed on and somehow survived.

This is a simple story, beautifully told and handsomely illustrated.
Author David Booth has created a truly great Canadian hero in
Matthew’s grandfather, a simple farmer with an indomitable spirit.
Karen Reczuch’s drawings lend a timeless, haunting quality to every
page.

Unfortunately, nature is made to take the rap for human error. As
Grandpa admits, when he and his fellow farmers first arrived on the land
they destroyed the native plants and turned the prairies into a one-crop
country. Sixty years later, three generations of farmers sit on a porch
step wondering where the dust bowl came from. Recommended with
reservations.