Dust is everywhere in this house and you don’t need a white glove to prove it. From the bedside tables to the kids’ bookshelves, I can see evidence of a tardy housewife.
My excuse is that dusting sets me off sneezing. Great fits of “achoo,” a spray of snoot and a nose that sniffles and snuffles for the remainder of the day. Why would I want to dust?
So what is dust? ‘Dust is a general name for minute solid particles with diameters less than…500 micrometres. Particles in the atmosphere arise from various sources such as soil dust lifted up by wind, volcanic eruptions, and pollution.’
There are three main components of dust: dead skin cells, the dried faeces and corpses of dust mites (nice!) and tiny fibres shed by clothing such as cotton.**
The story I am reviewing today though is far more serious than a dusty bookcase. It is about the humanitarian disaster in Niger, Africa, in 2005. Entitled Dust, by Colin Thompson, published by A.B.C Books, this picture book follows the tragic journey of a mother and child starved and exposed to the elements.
The book starts by saying: “I died last night” and haunting illustrations give weight to the text. Fourteen well-known illustrators designed a double page each and the unique styles interpret the journey of death for this nameless African mother and her child.
“I had no years to fall in love, no weeks to laugh, no days to learn that two and three make five.”
There is a sad reminder that the western world ignored their pleas when it shows a man wearing cufflinks shoveling his left-over dinner into the bin on top of a newspaper that writes about the famine in World News, in contrast to a two million dollar wedding entertainment article.
The second last image in the story has a corpse carrying a sickle and lantern with skulls scattering the ground. He is holding the hands of other cultures.
“Tomorrow we will be back in the dust, gathered by the wind and spread across the world.”
Perhaps this is saying that the Africans' plight will be spread across the world or that they will merely be dust - forgotten under our feet.
It is the final image that shows the frailty of life. Four burning matchsticks with earth the centre in each matchstick head, are glowing, burning, and finally burnt out. A message to the world how quickly we pass from life to death and that we have only one Earth.
This is not your usual picture book but it is a story that needs to be read and shared with your children. Thompson has poignantly retraced this dreadful famine and highlighted the waste of life through beautiful illustrations and evocative text.
While my dusting prelude was completely insignificant it does have a similar theme of neglect. In Niger, we neglected people who were thirsty, starving and weak. Let’s owe them the respect of being remembered before they were dust.
*Wikipedia
**answerbag.com
picture - illustrated by Colin Thompson
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