Reading Disasters: Science, Literary Devices, and the Culture of Reassurance in Children's Nonfiction Literature on Natural Disasters

Authors

Emily Willis, Brigham Young University

Keywords

Children's non-fiction, Natural Disasters, Reassurance

Abstract

September 21, 1938, dawned chilly but calm on the Northeast coast of the United States. Weather forecasts indicated the possibility for rain and high tides from a storm brewing somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, but nothing prepared Northeasterners for the nightmare that would be upon them that afternoon. By three o'clock p.m., the "Long Island Express," a category three hurricane, barreled across New York and other parts of the New England coast, causing nea rly $400 million in damages. "While forecasters attempted to stay one step ahead of the storm, they were caught off-guard," states Sean Potter in a vignette on the hurricane written in the magazine Weatherwise. According to this view, a lack of science that properly interpreted the storm's path resulted in little warning and ultimately led to the deaths of over six hundred people. "With the passing of the storm," writes children's nonfiction author Patricia Lauber, "weather scientists began trying to understand what had happened. How and why had this monster of a storm reached Long Island and New England?"

Recommended Citation

Willis, Emily (2013) "Reading Disasters: Science, Literary Devices, and the Culture of Reassurance in Children's Nonfiction Literature on Natural Disasters," The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing: Vol. 42: Iss. 1, Article 12.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thetean/vol42/iss1/12