From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-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, Mankato Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
*Starred Review* K-Gr. 3. This well-told tale, based on an incident from the author's life, begins as Grandpa is building a new house on a hill. Even though it will have electricity and indoor plumbing, Grandma stubbornly doesn't want to move. All the extras are like gravy on her mashed potatoes, nice but unnecessary. Wren, the couples' granddaughter and the story's narrator, recounts how torrents of rain make the house look like a necessity. Grandma and Wren head to the house; soon they are joined by 23 people, 3 horses, a cow, 5 pigs, a duck, 4 cats, and 100 chickens. This crush gives McCully the opportunity for one of the book's best two-page spreads--animals, adults, and children all crowded together, trying to find safety. Another stunning picture is the wild, rainy scene showing houses bobbing along as the water pours down. A bit of an edge is added to the story when Grandfather, out in the storm, doesn't return home--and there's humor when Grandma and Wren find him, literally, up a tree with a cow. Vermont's flood of 1927 is resurrected, with both text and art putting a human face on natural disaster. It is the sense of community that makes the tragedy bearable.
Ilene CooperCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
