Especially for fans of Robert McCloskey's 1958 Caldecott Award winning picture book Time of Wonder, this wondrous new book is a must read. As in McCloskey's book, this one follows two siblings anticipating a storm, experiencing its power, and coming through it safely. This one, though, gives the whole focus to the storm, starting with the words
Now take my hand
and we'll go see
the sea before the storm.
You can feel the kindness and togetherness in these words. Listen closely and you will also hear the poetry of it, in alliteration and iambs. Now pair it with one of Sydney Smith's incomparable illustrations, this one viewed through a dark hallway out toward an open door and the filtered light of a pre-storm landscape, with the older brother reaching down to a little sister who's pulling on her boots. In a single page spread you have all the makings of a dramatic adventure.
You may already know Sydney Smith through award-winning books like My Baba's Garden and Do You Remember? In this book, the Hans Christian Andersen Award winner has teamed up with Caldecott Award winner Brian Floca, whose Keeping the City Going brought us a glimpse of everyday heroism amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. He brings a similar immediacy to Island Storm: the crunching of gravel on the road to the cove, the seaside stones "that lie like great bones," and the question of how far to risk as the big storm grows ever nearer:
"And then we ask, is this enough, or do we try for more?
You pull on me, I pull on you, and we decide to go on."
There's a thrill to the way the two keep going, and an ominous side, too, especially when the children get startled by a huge boom of thunder and ragged dark clouds reach their fingers down toward the town. Upon the clouds, in slanted letters, we see the single word: "RUN!"
In a departure from McCloskey, these two children have to deal with the consequences of their choices. It is their care for each other and a dose of luck that pulls them through to facing both trouble and forgiveness at home.
This book belongs in every home library for its poetry, its beauty, and its opportunity to talk with young readers (ages four to eight or any age) about how they view risks.
Us? We're going to put it right on top of our copy of Time of Wonder and be grateful for two such magnificent storm books within our lifetimes.
