Smoky Night

I have definitely seen the cover of Smoky Night by Eve Bunting, but didn’t think I had read it, so I decided to pick up this controversial book and take a look at it. Needless to say, even though it is a picture book, the content is complicated and I’m not sure many kids would understand what is actually happening in the story. The book starts off with a mom and her son looking out the window, and watching riots in the street. The story is told from the son’s point of view, and we are given an idea that the riot is about differences in race by some quotes. For example, the little boy explains, Mama says it’s better if we buy from our own people” and “Mrs. Kim yells at Jasmine in words I can’t understand. She is yelling the same kind of words now at the people who are stealing her stuff.” So we definitely get the idea that there is a race issue going on here, but I’m not sure if students reading the story would pick up on that at first.
The ending of the story spells out the issue a little easier for the student to comprehend. Throughout the story, the fact that the little boy’s cat and his neighbor, Mrs. Kim’s (who is Asian) cat do not get along, and they are of different color. After the fire happens at the apartment where the boy, his mom, and Mrs. Kim live, they are brought together in a church waiting room and notice the cats get along, and the boy invites Mrs. Kim to come over one day so that their cats can play together. This ties in with the idea that no matter what color you are (or your cat it) there is no excuse not to get along and start riots.
Again, as you can see, the book is pretty controversial. I’m not sure if I would incorporate this book into my teaching, but I guess it depends what grade I teach. I feel there are better stories that involve race and what not that explain what is happening in simpler terms. I think by reading this story to my class, I would frighten many students, and possibly get parents complaining that it is too violent or graphic for their age.
Aside from that, I did love the pictures in the book. The paintings in the book were done in acrylics on Arches watercolor paper. The backgrounds were of real life objects, which went according with what the text was talking about on that page.