Letting Swift River Go

Letting Swift River Go is a bittersweet story of the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir, located in central Massachusetts, between 1927 and 1946 Yolen employs a poetic narration of Sally’s voice as she recollects the realities of living near the flooding of the swift-river towns and the disappointment of leaving the tranquil rural community Sally’s family is forced to move, rowing along the reservoir to safety. As Sally remembers her childhood, she remembers with fondness her town before the flood She recalls as well, with sadness, the dismantling of the town, its history and identity—forcing families and friends to relocate The luminous illustrations evoke a sense of time and place The double-page spreads of pictorial vignettes will help readers visualize the devastation of a town and to empathize with those who lost their homes The last scene illustrates the narrator (Sally) and her father revisiting the reservoir, pointing out underwater landmarks, and finally looking “down into the darkening deep and letting them go,” referring to the collective memories of their beloved town.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.