Where Only Storms Grow: A Novel About the Dust Bowl
As 1935 begins, dust is wrecking everything in the Oklahoma Panhandle. When the dusters blow through, they leave piles of dust like snowdrifts against the Stantons’ house and barn, and sometimes inside as well. To make matters worse, the twelve-year-old Stanton twins, Joanna and Howe, have been drifting apart for the past several months. Joanna’s scoliosis leaves her in near-constant pain, so Mama won’t let her help with much. Meanwhile, Howe hides from his despair by reading and writing poetry in secret and dreaming of escaping their gritty lifestyle.
He thinks he’s found his chance when their father announces he’s going to California to find work. But because Joanna’s condition makes her too fragile to travel so far, he’s going alone. Howe must stay behind with Joanna, their mother, and their 21-year-old brother, Lou, to keep the farm running. But when an accident leaves Lou bedridden, the twins have to work together not only to keep the farm running but to save it—and each other.
Told in Howe’s and Joanna’s alternating viewpoints, the novel introduces young readers to the struggles of Oklahomans in the Dust Bowl. Through age-appropriate depictions, Colman shows the blindness of being caught in a dust storm, the toll of “dust pneumonia,” and even the danger of static electricity during and right after a storm. The twins are simultaneously old souls and typical preteens, with all the usual insecurities that come with that age. And while the siblings often squabble, in the end, they remember that together, they are much more than the sum of their parts. This is a beautifully crafted novel full of hope. Highly recommended for ages 8-12.
