Dust - Softcover

Slade, Arthur

3.53

1,566 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006485944 ISBN 13: 9780006485940

Publisher: HarperTrophy, 2003

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Winner of the
2001 Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature
2001 Saskatchewan Book Awards, Children’s Literature
2001 Mr. Christie’s Book Award

... combineshomespun storytelling mystery and sophisticated metaphysical aspects to create amulti-layered tension." The National Post

"...sparklingly original..." The Globe and Mail

Matthew is missing. Robert’sseven-year-old brother has vanished on a walk into town. Robert’s mother hadasked him to accompany Matthew to Horshoe to buy some some gum, but Robert wasmiles away engrossed in a Martian adventure story, and certainly not home on hisfarm in Depression-era Saskatchewan. And when his younger brother disappears,Robert figures it is his fault and he has to find him.

He soon notices there is something sinister happening. The hens are layingeggs with blood in them; a broken jar found out on the prairie has a plaintiveecho of a young girl’s voice; and most disturbingly, his parents are lost in aweird sort of daydream and have forgotten about their missing son.

It is up to Robert to discover where his brother has disappeared – alongwith the other boys and girls of Horshoe. He is led to an ivory-skinned strangerwho suddenly appears and bewitches both parents and children with magicalmirrors and a fantastic rainmaking machine.

In a style that has stomach muscles tightening right from the first sentence,Arthur Slade brings a new and sophisticated brand of psychological fear to theyoung-adult market. Dust is a story that will leave audiences breathless.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap:

Seven-year-old Matthew disappears one day on a walk into Horshoe, a dust bowl farm town in Depression-era Saskatchewan. Robert, his older brother, is determined to find Matthew, even when the grownups seem to give up. Other children go missing just as a strange man named Abram Harsich appears in town. He dazzles the townspeople, long plagued by the effects of drought, with magic mirrors and the promises of a rainmaking machine. Only Robert seems to be able to resist Abram, and to discover what happened to Matthew.
From the Hardcover edition.

From the Back Cover:

“Sparklingly original . . . heartbreakingly beautiful . . . a climax that almost takes one’s breath away.”
–The Globe and Mail

From the Hardcover edition.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.