Smoky Night

Eve Bunting (author)

David Diaz (Illustrations)

Voyager Books, Harcourt Inc., USA: 1994

ISBN: 0152018840

Genres: picture book, realistic fiction

Issues: community, crime, racism, tolerance, violence

Winner Caldecott Medal, 1995

There are riots in Los Angeles. Daniel, his mother and Jasmine the cat, watch from their apartment. People laugh as they break things, smash shop windows and steal whatever they find. Anger and danger hang in the air, accompanied soon by the smoke from fires the rioters have lit.

Daniel, his mother and their neighbours are forced to evacuate to a local church hall. But where is Jasmine? Mrs Kim's cat is also missing. The return of the two cats and the frightening events of the night show Daniel and his mother that acceptance of others regardless of colour, race or creed, is what makes a community strong.

This remarkable picture book has won a number of awards, including the Caldecott Medal. A good story is made great by Diaz's remarkable illustrations, which provide a powerful subtext. Stylised paintings in acrylics and watercolour on paper, on composited backgrounds, are constructed in thick paint, resulting in rich, vibrant images that are highly tactile. People's faces are shown in blues, greens and mauves, thus avoiding racial stereotypes and demonstrating that people's colour is irrelevant, that their actions are what are important. Diaz also manipulates colour to support the moods of the text, as greys and darker greens reflect fear, reds and oranges express the anger and violence of the rioters. The background collages add a realistic element that grounds the slightly surreal or nightmarish feeling of the illustrations.

Highly recommended.