The storm in the barn - Phelan, Matt 1970- (Candlewick Press, 2009)
"In 1937 Kansas, eleven-year-old Jack Clark faces his share of ordinary challenges: local bullies, his father's failed expectations, a little sister with an eye of trouble. But he also has to deal with the effects of the Dust Bowl, including rising tensions in his small town and the spread of a shadowy illness. A case of the new 'dust dementia' would certainly explain who (or what) Jack has glimpsed in the abandoned Talbot barn–a sinister figure with a face like rain. In a land where it never rains, it is hard to trust what you see with your own eyes–and harder still to take heart and be a hero when the time comes"–Front jacket flap.