Letting Swift River Go (1992) is another of Jane Yolen’s superbly crafted stories. It begins with an author’s note, “The Quabbin Reservoir is near my house.” Thus begins a very personal recollection of childhood by a now grown-up Sally Jane. She felt safe in her valley town. She walked to school, fished the Swift River, picnicked in the graveyard, and slept outside with her friends. Then “everything began to change.” Boston voted to “drown our towns that the people in the city might drink.” Barbara Cooney’s illustrations contrast the beautiful landscape of the Swift River Valley prior to its destruction with the vast barrenness required to create a reservoir. She finishes with the immense body of water that covered the towns of Dana, Enfield, Prescott, and Greenwich. As an adult, Sally Jane looks back and recalls her mother’s words, when a city girl visited with mason jars to capture fireflies. My resource focuses on the people who lived in the valley, not the construction of the Winsor Dam and Goodnough Dike. This story is read aloud online by Denver DiMarzio.
My Picture Book Talk resource for this story is here.
