The Longest Storm. Dan Yaccarino. 2021. 40 pages. [Source: Library]
First sentence: A storm came to our town. It was unlike any storm we'd ever seen. No one knew how long it would last. We were going to have to stay inside, maybe for a long while.
Premise/plot: A father and his children struggle with all the many, many uncertainties of being house-bound for a long, long, long, LONG, long, long, long time. The illustrations and text tell the story of their emotional roller-coaster-like journey. It isn't so much what is going on outside the house in the midst of the storm as what is going on mentally and emotionally within the house.
My thoughts: The Longest Storm could definitely be a picture book for those aged 9 to 99. It is an abstract picture book in some ways. You could easily say it was about mental health or the importance of having coping strategies in place OR you could focus more on the relationships. You can love someone without *liking* them all that much. And relationships can have very tense moments that build and build. Life happens. There are BIG emotions. But the book also shows the importance of being kind and intentional. After all having BIG emotions doesn't make you a villain.
For those wondering...it does have a happily ever after ending tacked on at the end. This makes sense in some ways. Who wants to end a book in the middle of the storm when everything is still so unknown and uncertain? Even though in real life, the transitions from beginning, middle, and end aren't so precise and exact. When you're going through the big storms in life, it would be nice if you could just turn a page and suddenly everything be all brand new and ready to go...but life isn't like that.
© 2021 Becky Laney of Young Readers
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