Smoky Night

Rating:
Summary: Seeing a difficult reality
Review: Any child who watches television -- and what child doesn't? -- sees many disturbing things happening in the world. We would all wish such things did not exist -- but they do. The best we can do is to help children put such events in some sort of context. Bad things happen to good people, and good people -- even our friends and neighbors -- can do horrible things. But there are heroes and there are possibilities for understanding and for reconciliation. "Smoky Night" teaches these lessons powerfully well.

Rating:
Summary: A new view of urban violence
Review: Bunting takes a bold step by bringing the LA riots to life through the eyes of a child. Though not the ideal bed time story, Smoky night is worth being read. It conveys the message of the effects of urban violence on a child but also tells a beautiful tale of coming together. Daniel and his cat stare out their apartment window at the streets below as people loot the stores. He can not understand why this is happening, how people can look angry and happy at the same time. As Daniel and his mother sleep, a fire breaks out in their building. In the confusion their cat is lost as well as the cat of Mrs. Kim, a Korean shop owner where Daniel's mother never goes. Perhaps a tad cornybut effective is Bunting's use of the two cats coming together to find comfort and security in a time of crisis. The illustrations of David Diaz fill the pages with bright neon colors. His use of multi media to create unique chaotic pictures, complimentary to the story being told.

Rating:
Summary: Smoky Night- Chilren facing rioting and prejudice
Review: From her home in Pasadena, California, Eve Bunting was close enough to Los Angeles for the riots of the early 90's to have had a big impact on her everyday life during that time. As an author of children's literature who was always thinking of new story lines, she began wondering about the effects the riots had on children in the Los Angeles area and other areas where rioting was taking place. This is the premise of her book Smoky Night. In the story, a young boy and his mother witness a riot on the streets outside their home. Later that evening, their building catches fire, and they go to a shelter until the fire can be extinguished and the building repaired. Through their experience, they learn the importance of getting along with others regardless of their race or background. Bunting does a wonderful job of portraying the craziness and futility of the riots from a child's perspective. The illustrations by David Diaz are also important in furthering the theme of overcoming the adversity of the riots, along with racism, through togetherness. Smoky Night begins with just the narrator and his mother, exhibiting their isolation in the middle of the dangerous riots. The mother in the story becomes the interpreter of the riots for the young boy. He seems to understand how the rioters are feeling, he says, "They look angry. But they look happy, too," but he does not understand why they are smashing and stealing things. His mother explains that they are so angry that they don't care what's right or wrong anymore. The pictures that illustrate the scenes of the rioting streets are wonderful. Collages of such things as glass to represent the broken windows, the soles of shoes to represent the robbing of the shoe store, and several different types of cereal to represent the robbing of Mrs. Kim's market create the illustrations. A painted scene of the action that is being described at the time also accompanies each of these backgrounds. During the riots, the colors and images are brightly colored, and many different things cover each page. The colors as well as the sparse, carefully selected words create the sense of panic and confusion that everyone, especially the children must have been feeling at the time. The brightest illustration is the one depicting the reds and yellows of the apartment fire along with matches and the fleeing occupants of the building. On the same page appears a lot of dialogue to represent the confusion of the fire in the middle of the night. Most of this consists of quick questions, many concerning the boy's lost cat. Later in the story, Bunting uses this cat which always fights with a neighbor's cat as a metaphor for the people who also work against their neighbors. The reader finds out about the cats' feud and the prejudice of the people when the boy says, "Mr. Kim's cat and my cat fight all the time, and Mrs. Kim yells at Jasmine in words I don't understand." As the people flee from the burning building their sense of urgency is obvious from the repeated use of exclamation points on the page. After the residents of the apartment escape from the fire, the text seems to move more slowly and the pictures show thick, soup-like smoke covering everything. Not until the residents of the apartment reach a shelter and a kind fireman brings both the boy's and Mrs. Kim's cats to them do the illustrations brighten up once again. In the story the cats are important because, like the people, the cats do not get along at first. However, when they are caught in the riots and the fire, they find the need to be with one another and, in the end, the fireman finds them together. The people involved in the story go through the same changes, and they also find that they have never taken the time to get to know each other. A story like Smoky Night can be helpful for any person who is struggling through adversity or thinking that others may be too different from themselves to be worth befriending.

Rating:
Summary: Rioting
Review: My daughter brought this book home from her school library and after reading the book to her I couldn't believe this would be available in a kindergarten library. It is very disturbing! I believe it has a good message but the details are too vivid for a 5 year old. Daniel sees people stealing from stores, sleeps in his clothes because he may have to get out in the middle of the night, has to escape a fire, and sees "a dead man with no arms" which turns out to be a manequin! I would look for other books about people of different races coming together in crisis that aren't so scary.

Rating:
Summary: A 3 1/2 year old critic
Review: My daughter spotted this book at the library and said "look its a badge book." We are reading Caldecott Honor books to earn a badge from the library. I thought the content was a little advanced for a 3 year old, but she said "mommy this is an interesting book." She wants to read it again tonight before we return it to the library. I am ordering a paperback copy for at home and for future reads. I think she will understand the content and meaning more as she gets older. I am certain she doesn't know what riots are but she liked the tie-in with the 2 fueding cats becoming friends in the end and sharing a bowl of milk at the shelter where their families have been relocated during the riots.

Rating:
Summary: A 3 1/2 year old critic
Review: My daughter spotted this book at the library and said "look its a badge book." We are reading Caldecott Honor books to earn a badge from the library. I thought the content was a little advanced for a 3 year old, but she said "mommy this is an interesting book." She wants to read it again tonight before we return it to the library. I am ordering a paperback copy for at home and for future reads. I think she will understand the content and meaning more as she gets older. I am certain she doesn't know what riots are but she liked the tie-in with the 2 fueding cats becoming friends in the end and sharing a bowl of milk at the shelter where their families have been relocated during the riots.

Rating:
Summary: Avoid, this book creates negative stereotypes.
Review: Smoky Night portrays a mother and son family in urban Los Angeles who are forced to leave their apartment because of a fire while the riots are in full swing. The background of each full-page spread consists of various photographed media, while the left side contains the text and the right side the impressionistic illustrations. The paintings contain exceptionally heavy lines to lend a sense of surrealism to a horrifying experience and also give a sense of seriousness within the brightly colored illustrations. This story shows an experience that elementary children nowadays won't remember, but may still be vivid in their parent's memory, and reminds the reader that adversity does not have racial boundaries.

Rating:
Summary: Caldecott seals can be WRONG!
Review: This story looks at the L.A. Riots through the eyes of a child. Illustrator David Diaz used bold, thick acrylics on textured papers to illustrate the different scenes and then photographed those images for the book. The outcome is a surreal combination of the real and the imaged, reflective of the feelings one might having during a time of uncertainty. The story is short, almost too short. It attempts to show the riots from Daniel's point-of-view, but leaves out so much of the history of the riots, that they seem unfounded and decontexualized. Bunting's portrayal of this event is shallow and borders on racist. His mother's words "other" the predominantly black rioters, making them out to be thieving monsters and perpetuating negative stereotypes. This book may still find a use if only to promote discussion and get children thinking about what might have happened before the rioting began to make the people so angry. Otherwise, this book is an example of how beautiful illustrations can lead to a Caldecott seal and the book can still have an awful story.

Rating:
Summary: Summer in the city
Review: Who would have thought a book focusing its attention on race riots would have won the 1995 Caldecott Award? Yet when you think about it... it makes sense. The best children's books are the ones that can explain awful circumstances in a way that kids can understand. Just as the 2004 Caldecott Award winner "The Man Who Walked Between the Towers" tips its hat to September 11th, "Smoky Night" was inspired by the L.A. riots. According to the bookflap, author Even Bunting wondered what riots meant to the children that lived through them. Through this tale, Bunting shows the good that can come out of hard times and struggles.

When the book begins, young Daniel and his mom are watching the people rioting in the street below. Daniel is confused by this, and rightly so. These people are taking an odd joy in what they do. Even as they destroy and steal they act happy with what they're doing. Says Daniel, "I've never heard anybody laugh the way they laugh". That night Daniel is woken up out of his bed by the shaking of his mother. The apartment building is on fire, and the boy cannot locate his pet cat Jasmine. In the panic he's forced to leave without her and stay in a shelter that night with his mom. Mrs. Kim, a neighbor of Daniel, is missing her cat as well. Suddenly a fire fighter enters the building, both cats under his arms. Where once the cats used to fight one another, now there is a bond between them. A similar attempt to make peace with Mrs. Kim ends with pleasing results.

The story doesn't strike you as particularly moving at first. You need to read it and digest it a while to get the full flavor of the text. When I first read through the tale I felt disappointed. A little let down. Then I thought about what I read and went back to it. The inclusion of the cats is really what lets this story work as well as it does. I also appreciated how the tale acknowledged the dark side of human beings. Though it's clear that Daniel and his mother are not "bad people", he notes that the reason he and his mother do not shop at the story of Mrs. Kim is that, "Mama says it's better if we buy from our own people". This chilling statement is somewhat rectified by the end, but just barely. I was grateful that this didn't turn out to be a throwaway line.

The illustrations for this book, provided by the multi-talented Daid Diaz, work exceedingly well. The thick heavily stylized drawing style of Diaz is contrasted with a kind of multi-media pairing with photographs. If you've ever read Kathleen Krull's remarkable, "Wilma Unlimited" then you'll know what I'm talking about. For example, when we see Mrs. Kim unhappily trying to stop people from stealing her store's goods, the photograph behind the illustration is a sidewalk covered in scattered dry goods. Underneath the nuts and dried fruits you can just make out the childlike chalk drawings, possibly made earlier in the day. Tiny impossible details like this one fill the text. It's remarkable.

Some people may feel this book is racist because it doesn't explain the motivations behind the rioters. Well, it does mention the anger the rioters feel but to a child the simple fact that people are stealing from one another is a bad thing. Also, I might point out that Daniel and his mother are black. If you find racism in this book, it's probably because you hope to find it.

What I suggest is this: First, read this book to yourself. Think it through. Ponder it a couple times. Then read it to your child/children. Let them think it through. Let them ponder it a couple times. Then read it together to get the full flavor of the text. Answer the children's questions. Try to find answers that are honest but not too upsetting. Then, when they've gone to bed, read it book one more time to yourself. Savor it. Go to bed yourself.