Module 3 - Smoky Night

Bibliographic Information

Bunting, E. (1994). Smoky night. Orlando: Harcourt Brace & Company.

Summary

This is a story about a little boy and his mother watching a riot taking place down below on the streets in their neighborhood.  They are sitting in the dark and seem to be afraid to turn on the lights.  There is so much noise with angry looking people smashing everything.  It looks like fog outside with smoke, and they see flames in the distance.  While he is holding tight to his cat, Jasmine, he asks his mother what is happening.  She states, “It can happen when people get angry.  They want to smash and destroy.  They don’t care anymore what’s right and what’s wrong.”  The boy and his mother continue to watch and see people taking TVs out of an appliance store.  They break into Mrs. Kim’s market across the street and start throwing cartons of food outside.  The little boy says that he and his mother don’t go to Mrs. Kim’s store because “Mama says it’s better if we buy from our own people.”  Mrs. Kim also has a big, fat orange cat that fights with Jasmine all the time.

Later that evening, the streets start to get quiet.  Jasmine, the little boy, and his mother sleep together.  Suddenly the boy wakes up with his mother shaking him and telling him to get up.  He smells smoke and hears someone yelling that there is a fire in the building.  He immediately looks for Jasmine, but he cannot find her.  They have to leave the building and the little boy is very worried.  Everyone is telling him not to worry because cats are very smart.  He tells a fireman to look out for Jasmine.

They walk away from their building, and it is very scary because of the sights they see outside.  They go to a church where they are sheltered for the night.  A fireman shows up with Jasmine and the big orange cat that belongs to Mrs. Kim.  They aren’t fighting now.  The fireman tells them they were found under the stairs in the building sitting side by side.  The little boy makes a statement “They aren’t fighting.  They probably didn’t know each other before, now they do.”  Everyone gets very quiet.  After that, the mother and Mrs. Kim start to talk.  The experience of the fire and the riots brings a change in the attitude from the little boy’s mother and Mrs. Kim showing how important it is to get along with everyone, no matter what background or nationality you are.

Impressions

I enjoyed reading this book and could almost feel just how scared the characters were as I read about the things taking place.  The noise, the stealing, and the voices of the people were vividly described by the little boy, and the fire in the building added to the excitement.  The illustrations were excellent, which is no surprise considering it is the 1995 Caldecott winner.  I also liked that the author used a cat in the story to break down the racial barrier between the little boy, his mother, and their neighbor, Mrs. Kim.  I would recommend this book for older children to better understand the underlying racial issues.

Reviews

Ages 5-9. Bunting says she wrote this story after the Los Angeles riots made her wonder about what riots mean to the children who live through them. A boy and his cat look down from the window at people rioting in the streets below. His mother explains that rioting can happen when people get angry: "They want to smash and destroy. They don't care anymore what's right and wrong." The boy says that they look angry, but they look happy, too. He sees them looting Mrs. Kim's grocery store across the street; his mother never shopped there. That night, the apartment building burns, and everyone has to rush out to the shelter. The boy's cat is gone, and so is Mrs. Kim's cat, but a kind fire fighter finds both animals; they were hiding together. Then Bunting overstates her message: maybe the people, like the cats, need to get to know each other, so the boy's mother and Mrs. Kim agree to visit. Diaz's art is powerful--pulsating and crowded; part street mural, part urban collage. In each double-page spread, the background is a photograph of found objects and debris in a variety of textures and jagged shapes. On the right-hand page is an acrylic painting like a view through a heavy window, with thick lines and bright neon colors showing a multicultural cast. In fine contrast, the story is told quietly from the child's point of view, safe with his mother despite the fear, reaching out to the neighborhood community within the chaos.

(1994, March 1). [Review of the book Smoky night].  Booklist, 93, 13. Retrieved from http://www.flr.follett.com/search?SID=616e74f355cfb5db34db451a5da0eb44

Bunting addresses urban violence in this thought-provoking and visually exciting picture book inspired by the Los Angeles riots. Although they're neighbors, Daniel's cat and Mrs. Kim's cat don't get along. Nor do Daniel and his mother shop at Mrs. Kim's market. ``It's better if we buy from our own people,'' Daniel's mother says. But when Daniel's apartment building goes up in flames, all of the neighbors (including the cats) learn the value of bridging differences. Bunting does not explicitly connect her message about racism with the riots in her story's background, but her work is thoroughly believable and taut, steering clear of the maudlin or didactic. Diaz's dazzling mixed-media collages superimpose bold acrylic illustrations on photographs of carefully arranged backgrounds that feature a wide array of symbolic materials--from scraps of paper and shards of broken glass to spilled rice and plastic dry-cleaner bags. Interestingly, Diaz doesn't strongly differentiate the presumably Asian American Mrs. Kim from the African American characters--even the artwork here cautions the reader against assumptions about race. Ages 5-up. (Mar.)

(1994, January 31). [Review of the book Smoky night]. Publishers Weekly. Retrieved from  http://www.flr.follett.com/search?SID=616e74f355cfb5db34db451a5da0eb44

Library Use

Librarians could use this book to discuss the lesson that people may be different colors, have different beliefs, and be from different cultures, but inside we are all human.  We must treat each other with respect and live in peace to avoid such incidents that happened in the story.