What a book! Wow!! If you want a strong, courageous, downright heart wrenching novel with a woman named Elsa Martinelli and her lionhearted children, this is it! Elsa Martinelli has a good life living on a farm with her in-laws and two children in Texas during the 1930's. Then in the blink of an eye --- The dust bowl comes with no rain, wind storms and no crops! Their farm animals are dying, crops are withered, and food and water are scarce! People have dust pneumonia. Life has taken a dramatic turn!