Search - Smoky Night

This book was deserving of the Caldecott Medal. It is beautifully illustrated with paintings against collage backgrounds. A riot breaks out in Daniel's neighborhood one night and his apartment building catches on fire. During the night, Daniel and his mother are led to a shelter. Daniel is worried about his cat Jasmine, but he finds her at the shelter snuggling up with another neighborhood cat. This is a great story about people uniting in the wake of tragedy, forgetting their differences.

Written after the Los Angeles riots of the 1990s, this story tells the fictional tale of a young boy who witnesses the mayhem from his apartment window then has to evacuate to a shelter when his building catches on fire. The story resolves with his family and a shopkeeper from a different ethnic background getting to know each other for the first time. This story provides a great moral lesson and gentle exposure to a tumultuous time in our country’s recent history. The illustrations are a combination of acrylic painting and photographs of collage materials for a very textural and interesting effect.

No wonder this is a Caldecott Medal Book. An African/American boy living in an international neighborhood face rioting and learn about hate, kindness, and their neighbors. The illustrations are collage with slightly abstract paintings - full of color and movement and wed with the words to tell a story for people of all ages.

Having lived through the Los Angeles riot, I will never forget those days and nights. This book is a beautiful, hopeful reaction to the events that took place. I shared it with my daughter (when she was 10 years old).