A Gift of Dust : How Saharan Plumes Feed the Planet

A gift of dust: how saharan plumes feed the planet is a picture book by Martha Brockenbrough, illustrated by Caldecott honoree Juana Martinez-Neal, for readers aged 4 to 8.

Told in lyrical verse, it traces the extraordinary journey of an ancient fossil that becomes dust in the Sahara Desert in Chad, and is then swept up by winds and carried across the Atlantic Ocean, where it eventually helps nourish the soil of the Amazon rainforest.

Along the way the book introduces young readers to the science of how dust storms travel, how weather patterns connect distant parts of the globe, and how something as small as a speck of dust can have an outsized effect on ecosystems thousands of miles away.

It is ultimately a celebration of the hidden interconnectedness of the natural world.