Calling the Water Drum

A powerful story of loss and survival, human connection and hope.Henri plays his red bucket like a drum. It's his only physical tie to his parents, who perished while attempting to cross the sea from Haiti to Florida in a small rowboat. He survived and was rescued by refugees in a larger boat, and a note with his New Yorker uncle's name and contact information allows him to find safety in the United States. But Henri is emotionally scarred by the many losses he's endured, and he retreats into selective muteness. Playing his bucket-drum is a way for him to express himself, and his neighbor, an African-American girl named Karrine, who lost her father in the aftermath of "a hurricane in Louisiana," provides companionship and understanding. It is to Karrine that Henri speaks his first word when she says: "I miss my daddy, Henri. Do you miss your parents?" and "a sound rises like a wave in my throat. I open my mouth and one word spills out. 'Wi.' Yes." Redding's distinguished text sensitively portrays the tragedies young Henri and Karrine have faced, and Boyd's watercolor illustrations expressively convey the love of Henri's family, the perils of their sea crossing, and the range of emotions he experiences as he finds his way in New York with his uncle and friends. Moving. (Picture book. 5-10) COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 15, 2016
Grades 1-3 Redding tells the heartbreaking story of one Haitian boy's survival and adaptation to life in the U.S. in this picture-book immigration tale. Henri arrives in New York City traumatized and unable to speak. He has only a plastic bucket to call his own. His friend Karrine teaches him to thump on it once for yes and twice for no, and so his bucket becomes a drum. Henri takes to drumming to fill the silence in his mind and the pain in his heart, imagining the tones to be the sound of his parents' laughter, connecting with them through his rhythms. Boyd's expressive watercolor illustrations capture Henri's emotional struggles and throw the danger of crossing the ocean in a rowboat into vivid relief. The story highlights the realities faced by children all over the world whose lives are uprooted by calamity. Although the context for Henri's removal from Haiti is unclear, astute readers can be guided to think about why he left, and to make connections to current events.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)