Smoky Night

      by

Eve Bunting

Illustrated by

David Diaz 

 

Caldecott Metal Winner - 1995

 

Bunting, E. (1994). Smoky night. San Diego, CA:
     Harcourt, Brace & Company.

EXPOSITION: Daniel and his mother are watching the Los Angeles riots from their apartment window.

CONFLICT: They can see rioters looting the stores all around their building.

 

RISING ACTION:  When the rioters seem to leave, Daniel and his mother try to get some sleep, but people yelling that their apartment building is on fire awaken them in the middle of the night.

CLIMAX: As they try to get out of the building, Daniel’s cat, Jasmine, can’t be found and he worries that she might be burned up in the fire.

FALLING ACTION: Daniel tells a fireman about his lost cat just before he joins his mother at an emergency shelter where other homeless victims of the riots are gathering.

RESOLUTION: Finally, the fireman Daniel spoke to comes in carrying Jasmine and another neighborhood cat that had always been hostile toward Jasmine.  The fireman says he found the two cats huddled together for safety.  Just as the horror of the riots brought together the two cats that had always been enemies, Daniel finds that other victims at the shelter who had always been hostile to him and him and his mother are now likewise being kinder.  It seems shared hardship forges friendships out of old animosities, no matter what the species involved.

WAS THIS A WELL-ILLUSTRATED BOOK?  David Diaz’s illustrations are very rudimentary and two-dimensional.  They look like the child who is telling the story might have drawn them.  Personally, I found the drawings to be a poor compliment to the intensity of the story and its subject matter.  I felt the pictures seemed to diminish rather than convey the emotions of the story.  

PICTURE SOURCES:

cgi.ebay.com

pannarrens.wordpress.com

idothings.info

lifeboat.com