When the Wind Came

Book excerpt: A spare and beautiful story of resilience. It’s a normal day, at first, for a girl on her family farm. But then the wind starts. It blows harder and harder and harder. Her mother grabs her baby brother. Her father opens the root cellar door. They pile in and sit in darkness. But when they emerge, their home is gone. Through a series of short sentences, many beginning with “I remember . . .,” readers experience the girl’s emotional trajectory of shock, terror, sadness and, finally, hope — and even laughter. Sometimes, the winds come for children. And when they do, a story like When the Wind Came can make all the difference.