The Day It Rained Forever: A Story of the Johnstown Flood by Virginia T. Gross, Ronald Himler (Illustrator)

Mailbox Magazine - Deborah Zink Roffino

Valor rises with the floodwaters in this story of the 1889 deluge that swept through a little burg in Pennsylvania. Christina's working class family survives the surge only to be swept up in the emotions of credible piece of historical fiction in which each family member is tested in the struggled to survive a devasting disaster.

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5-- A historical novel about the bursting of a poorly constructed dam and subsequent flooding of Johnstown, PA, in 1898, as experienced by a fictional child and her family. The rains begin shortly after the death of 11-year-old Christina's infant sister, with preparations meanwhile under way for an uncle's wedding. Although it rains for an extended period, the family feels relatively safe from high water on their farm. They do, however, worry about Mama, who is involved in wedding plans in Johnstown when the dam gives way. She is swept by the flood into the branches of a tree, where a wooden tub containing a newborn baby also becomes lodged. Both are rescued and returned to the farm, and the family keeps the unclaimed infant. Much weakened by contrivances and coincidences, this story is uninvolving. The statement, ``The millionaires who formed the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club took shortcuts to save money,'' as an explanation for the shoddy construction leaves readers wishing for solid background information. The mixture of fact and fiction muddies the waters, raising but not answering questions about the historical event and its aftermath.-- Susan Patron, Los Angeles Public Library, CA

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