Smoky Night

Author: Eve Bunting
Illustrated By: David Diaz
Publisher: Harcourt, Brace and Company
Copyright Date: 1994
Number of Pages: 28
Reading Level: Ages 4-8





Summary
 A young boy named Daniel lives in an apartment with his mother. One night there were people rioting in the streets below their apartment. Daniel tells his point of view of the riot and what his mother tells him about it. Daniel sees men steeling a television from the appliances store, he sees peope taking shoes from a Fashion Shoes store, he even sees people stealing from Kim's market. He describes how Mrs. Kim yells at the people like he would yell at Daniel's cat who's name is Jasmine. That night his mother has him sleep in her bed but in the middle of the night she wakes him up in a hurry. The building is on fire and everyone started evacuating. He talks about the smoke and his fear that his cat was still in the building. The people are taken to a shelter where they are safe. The firefighter comes carrying two cats that hadn't gotten along previously. At the end Daniel's mother wonders at the how the cats are getting along. Daniel then states  "They probably didn't know each other before."

Personal Response
This is a wonderfully written and uniquely illustrated book. The author did a wonderful job at portraying such a horrible thing as rioting in a way that children can understand and learn from it. The illustrations are drawn colorfully but also include picture collages of photos that were taken by the illustrator. This makes the pages very unique. It is absolutely wonderful in the aspect that it has the underlying message that people hate other people because they don't really know them.

Potential Problems:
This may not be appropriate for very young children because of what it is about. It would be better for more mature children that can understand what it is about and learn from it.

Recommended to...
I would recommend this to children that need to learn about getting along with others. This would be a wonderful book to explain that when you learn more about people and you understand who they are and what their motivations are you learn to care about them or at least get along with them.