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Module 10: Dandelions by Eve Bunting


Genre: Historical Fiction

 Book Summary:
Zoe and her family are moving west to a land that is barely inhabited.  The journey is tough, but her family is close.  When they begin their new life in an unfamiliar place, times are hard.  Still, they have one another to lean on for support as they adjust and build their new home.

Bunting, Eve. (1995). Dandelions. NY: Harcourt.

 Impressions:
My first thought when reading this book was, "These pictures are gorgeous!"  I love how they are so realistic, and yet one can see the brush strokes.  I was entranced by the images, spending multiple minutes at a time just staring at them and taking in all the details.  At times, I even ignored the words.

Initially, I had a hard time getting into the actual story.  It took a while to embrace Zoe enough to be vested in her outcome.  The story was one that had been told many times before, and often, in a more adventurous and engaging manner.  My mind kept going back to Laura Ingalls Wilder and The Little House on the Prarie.   Eve Bunting's telling was definitely more subdued. I kept wondering when the  title flowers were going to come into play.  I had almost written the story off as one I had heard a million times before until I got to the end.

It took a long time for the dandelions to come into play, and even when they were initially introduced, I couldn't help but think, this is somewhat forced.  I was surprised, though, when I discovered where Zoe and her sister intended to plant the flowers.  I became even more surprised at the end, when Bunting finally tied the dandelions in with a metaphor for life and the move the family had made.  It was so poetic that I was able to overlook my indifference earlier on.  And I still can't get over the artwork.  It is absolutely enchanting.

 Professional Review:
It would be hard to come up with a tale of western settlers that's not a cliché, but Bunting (Spying on Miss Muller, p. 553, etc.) has done it. She takes a look at a pioneer woman, seen through the sympathetic eyes of her daughter, Zoe. While Zoe's father is challenged by the prospect of building a sod house on his turf, his pregnant wife is obviously homesick, and the prairie offers little solace: The view never changes, there are few neighbors, the closest town is a day's journey. In the gift of a miraculous patch of dandelions dug up from the roadside, Zoe hopes to cheer her mother (for a book for older readers, with a similar theme, see the review of Jennifer Armstrong's Black-Eyed Susan, above). Of the re-rooting of the dandelions, her mother says, "Don't expect a miracle, Zoe. It will take time." The last page shows the sod house crowned by a roof of gold. Shed (Staton Rabin's Casey Over There, 1994) creates scenes that makes this family larger-than-life; they capture the baked yellow heat of summer, and the golden weed that represents home. A memorable book, for the way its characters struggle with unhappiness, and slowly overcome it. (Picture book. 5-10)

Kirkus (1995). [Review for the book Dandelions].   Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/eve-bunting/dandelions-2/

Library Uses:
The paintings in this book by Greg Shed are so beautiful.  They truly add to the story, and it would be good to use this book to discuss the importance of having pictures in a book- especially when the text is conveying a time or a place one is not familiar with.  Comparing the piece with other artwork reflective of the time might help to engage students in the history.  It would also be good to discuss the art of the book for arts sake, and the role of the illustrator in a book.

Readalikes:
The Raft by Jim LaMarche
Daily Life in a Covered Wagon by Paul Erickson
Rachel's Journal: The Story of a Pioneer Girl by Marissa Moss

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