A Gift of Dust: How Saharan Plumes Feed the Planet

Brockenbrough writes in incantatory lines about great clouds of dust from the Sahara whose westward motion delivers unexpected benefits. Dust is not just one thing, the text explains; particles comprise “dirt, pollen, or a bit of a living thing.” In an old seabed, for example, fish might die, fossilize, and eventually become airborne. Carried across the Atlantic, the motes scatter nutrients, then land in the Amazon rainforest, where they replenish phosphorus washed away by torrential rainfall. Dotted with playful notes (“enough rain falls/ to submerge... a stack of twenty capybaras”), the lines underscore themes of atmospheric connection: “dust.../ that binds us through time/ and space.” Via impressionistic images, Martinez-Neal represents dust as small, sand-like particles that drift and dance, casting golden mist across the spreads. Human characters are portrayed with brown skin. Ages 4–8. (May)