One April Morning: Children Remember the Oklahoma City Bombing

by Nancy Lamb, Floyd Cooper (Illustrator)

Conversations with children from the Oklahoma City area about their feelings at the time of the bombing of the Federal Building and afterwards.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Nonfiction

56 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Nancy Lamb is the author of 43 fiction and non-fiction books for adults and children. She is also the author of The Art and Craft of Storytelling and The Writer's Guide to Crafting Stories for Children.

Lamb serves on the faculty of the Big Sur Writing Workshop and the Big Sur Children's Writing Workshop. She taught at the Hariette Austin Writing Program at the University of Georgia. And she also taught a master class in Singapore for the Media Development Authority. In addition to writing and teaching, she is also an editor and story strategist.

The Art and Craft of Storytelling has garnered high praise from professors, teachers and writers of both fiction and narrative non-fiction and is used to teach creative writing at several schools and universities throughout the country.

The Writer's Guide to Crafting Stories for Children is used to teach children's and adult fiction classes at The University of California, Los Angeles and Berkeley; the University of Georgia; Georgia Southern University; and Stanford University, as well as many other writing classes, workshops and conferences.

Reviews

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

One April Morning I was teaching in Norman, OK, just down the road from OKC. As we learned details (this was before 24/7 news cycles), students tried to learn more about the their parents taught...where was the Murrah Building? Was it close to their workplace? One teacher's husband worked in Murrah, but he was running late that day. It wasn't until later in the day that he appeared in his wife's classroom to prove he was alive. We had students who lost parents.

This book is a compilation of interviews with OKC children...what they knew, what they felt. What they thought. The book covers the shock, disbelief, reality, responses to the bombing. The stories are straightforward, followed by kids' own words as they processed all this.

The illustrations, pastels, I think, are exquisite. They reflect the innocence of children, and their generosity. Their resilient hearts.

This would be a natural choice in introducing this event to children, and would inspire conversations about loss and recovery. About justice and forgiveness.

[Shelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very moving firsthand telling of how the children from Oklahoma City were emotionally affected from the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Author Nancy Lamb visited with several nearby schools and listened to students who were ready and willing to discuss the events of that day, how they felt and how it changed their lives. An emotional but important book to share with kids when discussing this terrible attack.

[Monalisa Johnson-brown]

This is about the bomb that happened in Oaklahoma city in 1995. It talks about how families were scared. How they waited for news about their loved ones. How scared they were for their lives. There was a lot of sadness, loss of lives, injured, and misplaced families, but as days and months went by the healing process starts. This is a good book for Community.

[Caitlin Bonde · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of the Oklahoma bombing seen through children's eyes. Powerful for children to read.