The Dam
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A haunting, stunningly illustrated story of loss, hope, and the power of music from multi-award winners David Almond and Levi Pinfold. Kielder Water is a wild and beautiful place, rich in folk music and legend. Years ago, before a great dam was built to fill the valley with water, there were farms and homesteads in that valley and musicians who livened their rooms with song. After the village was abandoned and before the waters rushed in, a father and daughter returned there. The girl began to play her fiddle, bringing her tune to one empty house after another — for this was the last time that music would be heard in that place. With exquisite artwork by Levi Pinfold, David Almond’s lyrical narrative — inspired by a true tale — pays homage to his friends Mike and Kathryn Tickell and all the musicians of Northumberland, to show that music is ancient and unstoppable, and that dams and lakes cannot overwhelm it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
