Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Ninth Ward
By Jewell Parker Rhodes
Coretta Scott King Honor Book

When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, no one knew the levees would break. The lower Ninth Ward was a disaster. The houses that were not torn apart from the hurricane were washed away by the flood. The lower ninth ward has still not recovered from this storm today. This book gives the reader a great personal story of what the hurricane was like that night. It put it into perspective that people lived through this storm, not everyone was able to evacuate the city.

This story is very emotional and powerful. I have been to New Orleans many times to volunteer. I've seen the disaster first hand and I have talked to the people who lived through it and some of the people who were able to escape. The people in the story greatly resemble the people who do live in New Orleans. They are all very faithful people and believe that there was a reason for the storm and they will become stronger because of it. The moral of the city was extremely low, but you had people like Lanesha, who would not give up until they were all safe.

The author uses her love for reading in the words that the main character, Lanesha, uses. She is a brave young woman, who is forced to take care of a dog, her dying mother, Mama Ya-Ya, and her best friend, TaShon. She had to be the one to make sure they were all well prepared so they could survive through the night and maybe a couple of days. She used her and Mama Ya-Ya's great gifts to survive through the storm, along with her great planning. This is a great book for discussing character traits! It could be incorporated into a science lesson about weather, and then tied into history, since this was one of the most devastating storms of the last decade.