As summer school kicks off next week, I chose this book to see if it might serve as a good read aloud. "Dust" was not at all what I expected. Yes , it took place during a Dust Bowl type era, on a farm, near a small town. But there was so much more - a mysterious stranger, hints of aliens, kidnapping, and evil magic. It was a hard book to read, yet harder to put down. It would be an interesting follow up to "A Storm in the Barn" by Matthew Phelan.