DEAR AMERICA & MY NAME IS AMERICA: Dust Bowl

Well, we're still in the Depression, but some areas of the country have upped the ante and their residents are suffering from humongous dust storms.

We have both Dear America and My Name Is America tales from this time period, but they face the problem in different ways.

The Dear America book tells of a family who won't leave the Texas panhandle, despite numerous setbacks, while the MNIA story is about a family that leaves Oklahoma for California.

The different experiences overlap, of course. The girl in the Dear America has a friend who tells her about the California experience, and the boy from MNIA has a friend and an aunt who remain in Oklahoma.

I preferred the characters and stories from the Dear America book, although I did like the traveling bit in MNIA. Naturally, the characters in the MNIA deal with more abuse. Californians were embarrassingly unwelcome to these poor people that needed help. Too bad they couldn't have been shipped off to live in dust for a month and see how they liked it. But history always has been and always will be full of assholes!

Next up, we're up in Canada for a girl who has polio and then we begin the loooooonnnng stretch of World War II.