"When I rush hot down the Rocky Mountains into the
Great Plains below, they call me Chinook. I come in
winter like a summer wind, melting icicles, turning
snowmen into puddles. People say I bring joy and
headaches too, but I don't know about that.
Then, snap! I'm gone. And the bitter chill returns."
Ms. Poliquin's decision to write about the wind, and the power that it has over nature and humans, in both first person narrative and in prose that often blurs the line between fiction and fact is inspired. It captures the reader's attention from the first page until the last, switching between the essential voice of the wind itself and prose that offers information and imagination about how wind works and the many different types of winds found around the world.
In sections dubbed WIND CHRONICLES, she describes Maori Winds, Odysseus and the Bag of Winds, The Great Storm of 1703, The Deadliest Tornado, The Kamikaze Winds, and finally Migrating Dust. All are equally fascinating. There is so much here I knew nothing about. The entries that deal with how the wind works, and the force that it exerts are filled with facts that inform and often surprise. It also explains how humans have used the wind in many ways to make life better. There is much to learn.
I was stunned to learn that:
"The biggest migration in the world isn't done by
wildebeests or butterflies; it's done by dust."
In fact, readers are told that "Every year winds pick up millions of tons of dust and sand from the Saharan desert and blow it across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas', affecting different ecosystems as they blow. Detailed images explain the Enhanced Fujita Scale, the Santa Ana winds, the Beaufort Scale, and sailing winds. Mixed-media artwork is full of movement and power that stuns. An index and a list for further reading will encourage those looking to know more.
Informative, engaging, and beautifully designed.
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