A Gift of Dust

The title of the new book by Martha Brockenbrough and illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal, A Gift of Dust, inspires one’s imagination. Is it about Star Dust and how it is in everything? Or the magic of Fairy Dust and the possibilities it brings? Maybe it is a picture book introducing kids to the magic, dusty, gifting community of Burning Man!

In fact, A Gift of Dust is a book about, well, dust. Which, even as I type this, sounds as dull as a butter knife museum. 

But it is not. It is a remarkable story of dust; what it is, where it comes from, and how it affects or impacts the world we live in. 

We learn of enormous dust storms that originate in a dried up lake in the Sahara Desert in Africa and travel across the Atlantic Ocean to North and South America. 

We learn how dust benefits the Amazon Rain Forest, making it the greenest place on earth. We learn what happens when the dust lands in the water, what happens when dust clouds bump into hurricanes. It is all fascinating.

Brockenbrough’s text is short, sharp, and clever. Her examples of scale include comparing how much rain falls in the rain forest with how many capybaras standing on each other’s back. Twenty. Certain parts of the Amazon rainforest get twenty capybaras of rain.

She also tells us that the weight of the dust plume can weigh more than one hundred twenty female hippos. I’m not sure how many male hippos.

There is a compelling couple of pages of back matter with more intriguing facts, etc. Not all of the effects of the Saharan plumes of dust do good things, for instance it contributes to red tides.

The illustrations for this book are magnificent. I’ve been a fan of Martinez-Neal for years. And she does not disappoint here. The images are big and beautiful and active—sometimes frantic. The book is done entirely in two-page spreads so I’m not able to capture them in all their glory. Hopefully you can imagine the other half of the illustrations I’ve posted here.

She used pastels, colored pencils, acrylics, gesso, and fabric on hand-textured paper. I would love to see some of the originals!

Telling someone that a book on dust is compelling and informative and a lot of fun sounds like a stretch. But trust me, this is compelling, informative, and lots of fun.

Also gorgeous.

~kevan atteberry

http://kevanatteberry.com