Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Whenever there is a major world event, it is inevitable that in a few years there will be children's fiction written about the event. This book is set in New Orleans at the time of Hurricane Katrina. Lanesha is a 12 year old orphan who lives with the old midwife who delivered her. Both she and her guardian have special gifts. 82 year old Mama Ya-Ya can sense things in the future, and read signs in nature. Lanesha sees the ghosts that exist all around her, including the ghost of her own mother who died in child birth. As Mama Ya-Ya senses the coming catastrophe she helps prepare Lanesha for the crisis. Lanesha gains strength from her friends, both living and dead, to get through the terrible events of September 2005. This book is at both times realistic and surreal. The depiction of the part of New Orleans where Lanesha lives, the Nineth Ward, is vivid and true to life (though a little idealized). Reading Rhodes description of the coming of the hurricane took me back to when I was living in Florida during Hurricane Frederic. Rhodes descriptions of sounds and colors and smell matched my own experience. Lanesha's experience, however, was, I believe, not typical of most Katrina survivors. Most did not have a clairvoyant warning them to move to the attic, or grab certain supplies. I liked the book, and the relationship between Lanesha and her guardian is very sweet, but I wonder how someone who really lived through the event, without the supernatural help, would feel about the story. (217 p)