The Dam

Starred review from July 9, 2018
In lilting prose, Andersen Medalist Almond (Skellig) begins with a father who wakes his daughter at dawn: “Bring your fiddle,” he tells her. The dam that will flood their valley in the north of England is almost done. The buildings are empty, their inhabitants rehoused. The father pulls the boarded door off a deserted stone cottage, and they enter. “Now play,” he tells his daughter. “Play for all that are gone/ and for all that are still to come.” Without condemning the dam (one day, the inhabitants will play by the lake it forms), Almond recounts the way one family memorializes a cherished musical landscape with the loveliest thing they know. Chilly, windswept spreads by Pinfold (Black Dog) keep to slate grays, yellow browns, and stark light. Vignettes in which a tiny boat is carried higher and higher, above the roof of a submerged house, accompany the valley’s transformation (“The dam was sealed. The water rose. This disappeared...”). With riveting language and moody art, this true story will evoke awe and reverence of place for even very young readers. Ages 5–9.

September 1, 2018

Gr 2-5-Set in Northumberland, England, this is a quiet, understated tale about a boarded-up town before it's covered by flood water from a newly built dam. Almond tells of a father and daughter venturing out across a valley one last time in the dim light of dawn. Pinfold's pen, charcoal, and pastel scenes spread darkly across wide pages showing the broad valley, the dam's curving structure, and the two figures entering the first house and making music and dancing in the dark, empty rooms. Several pages group many small scenes. The father reminds the girl of his and her own past visits here for dances and parties and songs by famous musicians. "Now play. Play for all that are gone and for all that are to come." Finally, on the new lake front "The music rises../It continues./We hear it in the birds/and in the waves/and in the leaves/and in the grass." It's a haunting tale of loss ending in renewal as people come to the created lake for recreation. The subdued, somber tone of the text and pictures will elude many picture book readers. Almond's end note on the true story offers satisfying closure. VERDICT This hints at a ghostly tale that could make nice material for oral storytelling and shared reading with some older children. It might also be fun to use in music, natural science, and local history classes.-Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2018
In this picture book based on a true story, a father and daughter pay homage to the valley that will be flooded when a dam under construction is completed.Early one morning, Kathryn, a young girl, is woken by her father and told, "Bring your fiddle." They are visiting the valley that will soon be flooded when the Kielder Dam in Northumberland, England, is finished. In each empty house in the abandoned valley, Kathryn plays her fiddle while her father sings, as they remember and commemorate the music and the life that the houses have held. Author Almond's narrative is quietly spare as it both reinforces and references illustrator Pinfold's detailed, majestic illustrations--reminiscent of Andrew Wyeth's work in both palette and grace. When the narrative says, "This was covered over. / This was drowned," the small spot illustrations opposite, in a somber palette, create a sense of time, movement, and loss. And when, with the flick of the phrase, "The lake is beautiful" concludes the sequence, the narrative and illustrative tones change. Now the page turn reveals a majestic wordless double-page spread of the created lake, painted in soft blues and greens, and ensuing illustrations show people boating, swimming, and playing on the lakeshore.With its every detail--its masterful illustrations, its landscape format, and the elegant text that offers readers a way to see the promise of new life from what has been destroyed--this book triumphs. (Picture book. 4-10)

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September 15, 2018
Grades K-2 This takes the true story of the Kielder Dam in Northumberland and imbues it with music and a touch of mysticism. The dam was constructed in 1981 in a valley where there were farms, houses, a school. When the dam was finished, the valley was to be flooded. Almond's story begins as a father and daughter walk the valley one last time, remembering the pipers, singers, and dance parties that once filled the area with soaring sounds. The daughter has her violin, the father his voice, and together they enter abandoned homes to play and sing one last time, with birds, trees, and wisps of ghosts listening in. Pinfold's impressive artwork, sometimes full page, but often blocks of scenes covering spreads, serves as sturdy counterpoint to Almond's lyrical text. Particularly arresting are the 10 dark squares and rectangles that show the water covering all that's been before. Yet the promise of what comes next appears with the turn of a page, as people enjoy all the lake and its shore have to offer. A powerful piece of remembrance.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2019
During their final visit to an abandoned Northumberland, England, settlement before a dam floods the valley, a young fiddler and her father make music inside the boarded-up houses. The narrative, based on a true story about real-life folk musicians Kathryn and Mike Tickell, is elegiac and melancholy; dark and moody pictures in shades of gray and sepia break into joy with a serene blue lake reflecting a light-filled sky.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

November 1, 2018
Almond tells the story of a day in 1981 when a young fiddler named Kathryn and her father pay a final visit to an abandoned settlement in a valley in Northumberland, England. The Kielder Dam is about to be completed, flooding the valley and creating a new lake. In a ritual farewell, the father and daughter enter the boarded-up houses one-by-one and make music. The narrative is elegiac and melancholy ( And this will be washed away / And this will never be seen again ) but takes an unexpected turn after the valley floods: The lake is beautiful. The pictures, dark and moody in shades of gray and sepia, break into joy in a double-page spread of a serene blue lake reflecting a light-filled sky. In Almond's presentation, the music is both preserved inside the dwellings and released into the water as it rises. We hear it in the birds / and in the waves / and in the leaves / and in the grass. Pinfold tackles the tricky problem of how to portray music visually by painting elongated, wispy white figures whirling around the dark houses and in the night sky. This is a story that respects the past and its traditions without falling into nostalgia. An appended author's note reveals the characters to be the real-life folk musicians Kathryn and Mike Tickell. sarah ellis

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)