A Gift of Dust: How Saharan Plumes Feed the Planet

Gr 3-6–This illuminating book brings an often-overlooked natural phenomenon to life as dust travels on the wind from a dry lake in Africa across the Atlantic Ocean to South America and beyond. The story begins with a pregnant mother by a crib as dust motes show in the light. The impact dust has on different biomes is explored: “It sifts into the water, providing nutrients that help the sea make the air we breathe.” Size and weight are explained in visual terms. Rainfall in the rainforest as deep as “a stack of twenty capybaras balancing on each other’s backs” is described as the rain mixed with dust falls on a village where capybaras are playing. “There is so much dust that astronauts can spot it from space” shows an astronaut viewing Earth with the planet reflected on their visor and their tether spiraled like an umbilical cord. The narrative returns to the room with the mother now holding her baby: “This dust... of what once lived sustains what lives today.” The text is poetic in its imagery. The mixed media illustrations are full of careful details in dreamy, soft colors with speckles of dust moving across the pages to create a sense of wonder. Information on the Saharan dust, along with websites and books for additional resources, are provided. The end pages show the dust’s route.