Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Reviewed by Miss Dewey at Orenda

Four paw prints. It's 2005 and Lanesha lives in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her neighborhood is called the Ninth Ward. She has a good life. She lives with Mama Ya-Ya, she gets good grades in school, and she gets along well with the adults in her neighborhood. But as happy as she is, Lanesha is also a little sad. Her biological family doesn't want her (Mama Ya-Ya was the midwife who helped bring her into the world and who has been taking care of her for 12 years) and she doesn't have many friends. Other kids don't like to be around Lanesha because she can see ghosts, including her own dead mother. The ghosts don't really bother Lanesha, but they are starting to change. There is a hurricane approaching Louisiana and it's BIG. It's so big, the local meteorologists are telling people to get out of New Orleans. Even the ghosts seem to be aware of the coming storm and they are warning Lanesha. But Lanesha doesn't know what to do. Mama Ya-Ya, who can also communicate with spirits, is also unsure what to do. The spirits keep telling Mama Ya-Ya that danger is coming, but it is NOT from the hurricane. Though this story is not true the events in the story are true. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans, Louisiana and the entire American Gulf Coast was devastated by the wind and water. New Orleans was especially hard hit when the levees broke and water poured into the city. And though I loved this book, and I highly recommend it to students, I still want to know what happens to Lanesha and her friends. To learn more about this author, visit http://www.jewellparkerrhodes.com/children.

Fic Rho