Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes
What was it like to be in the Ninth Ward during Hurricane Katrina? In her first book for young readers, Jewell Parker Rhodes puts her heroine, 12-year-old Lanesha, right in the thick of it.
Lanesha lives in New Orleans' Ninth Ward with her guardian Mama Ya-Ya. They are poor, but their love for each other buoys them up. Both have a kind of second sight, which shows them in advance that Katrina is going to be devastating.
But Mama Ya-Ya is 82 years old and she and Lanesha have no car, no money, no other family to help them out of New Orleans. They must stay in their home and face the disaster head on, aided only by their wits and the ghost of Lanesha's birth mother.
As the waters of the Mississippi rose and Lanesha's situation looked more and more hopeless, I felt likeI was right there with her struggling to survive. Reading this beautifully writtenstory is a pleasure in itself, but paired with non-fiction titles about Hurricane Katrina, it will give kids a richer understanding of this important event in American history. Recommended for ages 10 and up.
This is the most beautifully written and powerful book I've read in a long time.