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Ninth Ward

In the week before Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans, twelve-year-old Lanesha is attending school, running errands in her neighborhood., and even starting to make a new friend in TaShon, a boy who lives nearby. Lanesha lives in the Ninth Ward with Mama Ya-Ya, the woman who’s raised her since she was born, while the ghost of Lanesha’s mother is the silent third resident of their home. In this vivid work of realistic fiction the ability to sense things beyond the physical world is simply part of the fabric of Mama Ya-Ya’s and Lanesha’s lives. It’s as real as the rhythm of life in their neighborhood, a place where people do what they can for one another. But that rhythm is disrupted as the hurricane approaches and warnings come to evacuate. Lanesha and Mama Ya-Ya have no way out of the city, or even to the stadium where many others are taking shelter. They remain at home, eventually joined by TaShon. The ferocious winds and torrential rains are frightening, but the rising waters in the storm’s aftermath are a slow and quiet terror. When the attic in which the three take shelter begins filling with water, Lanesha discovers survival is more than a matter of strength and courage, but of faith as well. In the end, that means holding on, reaching out, and letting go in author Jewell Parker Rhodes’ memorable, exquisitely realized story that offers an affecting look at the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina through one child’s experience. ©2010 Cooperative Children’s Book Center

CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 9-13
Age Range: Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10) Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Format: Novel
Subjects: 21st Century African Americans Community Disasters Magical Realism Survival U.S. History Weather
Diversity subject: Black/African

Publisher: Little, Brown
Publish Year: 2010
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9780316043076

CCBC Location: Fiction, Rhodes

Ninth Ward