Nora's Ark

Nora's Ark

From School Library JournalKindergarten-Grade 3-Set during the Flood of 1927 in Vermont, Kinsey-Warnock's story reveals the tangled emotions and disrupted lives produced by natural disaster. When Wren's Grandpa starts building his wife a new house on a hill, she insists that she has everything she needs in the farmhouse where they raised their eight children. Before the structure is finished, unprecedented rainfall swells the nearby river and drives the family into it. Soon they are joined by 20 people and a variety of livestock. Despite their losses, the neighbors bolster one another's spirits with stories and songs. However, Grandma and Wren cannot put aside their worries about Grandpa, who has not returned from trying to save his heifers. At daybreak, they set out in a rowboat and eventually rescue him from the tree where he is perched downriver. Relief and joy at their reunion overshadow the news of the destruction. McCully's illustrations run the emotional gamut from the panorama of houses swept away in the raging river to a bemused Grandpa gazing at the chickens, cow, and horses in his new house. Mary Calhoun's Flood (Morrow, 1997) and Jane Kurtz's River Friendly, River Wild (S & S, 2000), based on more recent Midwest floods, also provide insights into the human toll of such events. With its distance in time, Nora's Ark offers reassurance that lives can be rebuilt with the support of family and friends.-Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, MankatoCopyright