Ninth Ward

The Louisiana Girls Trilogy #1

by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Twelve-year-old Lanesha lives in a tight-knit community in New Orleans' Ninth Ward. She doesn't have a fancy house like her uptown family or lots of friends like the other kids on her street. But what she does have is Mama Ya-Ya, her fiercely loving caretaker, wise in the ways of the world and able to predict the future. So when Mama Ya-Ya's visions show a powerful hurricane--Katrina--fast approaching, it's up to Lanesha to call upon the hope and strength Mama Ya-Ya has given her to help them both survive the storm.

Ninth Ward is a deeply emotional story about transformation and a celebration of resilience, friendship, and family--as only love can define it.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Middle Grade, Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Fiction, African American, Childrens

217 pages, Paperback

First published August 16, 2010

About the author

Jewell Parker Rhodes has always loved reading and writing stories. Born and raised in Manchester, a largely African-American neighborhood on the North Side of Pittsburgh, she was a voracious reader as a child. She began college as a dance major, but when she discovered there were novels by African Americans, she knew she wanted to be an author. She wrote six novels for adults, two writing guides, and a memoir, but writing for children remained her dream.

Now she is the author of eleven books for youth including the New York Times bestsellers Will's Race for Home, Ghost Boys and Black Brother, Black Brother. Her other books include Soul Step, Treasure Island: Runaway Gold, Paradise on Fire, Towers Falling, and the Louisiana Girls Trilogy: Ninth Ward, Sugar, and Bayou Magic. She has also published six adult novels, two writing guides, and a memoir.

She is the recipient of numerous awards including the American Book Award, the Black Caucus of the American Library Award for Literary Excellence, a Coretta Scott King Honor Award, an NAACP Image Award nomination, and the Octavia E. Butler Award.

When she’s not writing, she’s visiting schools to talk about her books with the kids who read them, or teaching writing at Arizona State University, where she is the Piper Endowed Chair and Founding Artistic Director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing.

Reviews

[Zoë · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for my young adult literature class.

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of weeks ago, on a day that school was closed due to impending flash floods, Hurricane Katrina came up in conversation and my fourth-grader nephew perked up. He mentioned how bad the Ninth Ward had gotten hit, proud to be able to contribute to the conversation. He then told me they’d read this book in class. When I asked him if I should read it, his response was a simple yes.

If you’ve lived through Katrina, you won’t find anything erroneous in this account, though the stereotypes are facile, but you’ll likely feel wary once the Superdome is mentioned (I did) as if the author is trying to fit in too much.* I love the cover art, which fits the story in symbolic ways. I was touched by the book’s dedication, but found myself greatly irritated by the author’s note at the end, which poorly explains the hurricane and its aftermath.

My main issue was with the 12-year-old narrator’s ability to see ghosts. All she was able to accomplish with her friend, another ignored or even bullied misfit at school though not in their close-knit neighborhood, could’ve been done without the ghosts, a storyline which ended up seeming muddled and unnecessary.

Despite these reservations and my feeling that this book is just “ok”, it made an impression on a post-Katrina suburban N.O. child who now is interested in an area of the city he previously knew nothing about: for that it gets an extra star.

3/26 update:

*That wariness I felt was justified. After I'd told my nephew I'd read this and we discussed it a little bit, he told me he didn't get the Superdome part.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sorry, I think I liked this one a lot more in theory than in execution. A charged political issue (Hurricane Katrina), the subtle magical realism/supernatural elements more common in children's lit. today (a narrator that sees ghosts), and a 12-year-old strong female narrator coming of age all sound like the set-up for a perfect book, and one I'd adore. However, somehow this never really gelled for me. The writing never followed through on the high-concept promise, the ghosts were never worked into the story in a way that was meaningful for me, and it almost seemed like too much was crammed in before the hurricane actually starts (where narrator Lanesha makes two new friends suddenly and realizes what she wants to do when she grows up).

I certainly admired the idea, and some details (like the fact that nobody in the ninth ward knows how to swim because there were no pools) were heartbreaking. Overall, it sound heartless to say, but I could have done with more details like this and less of the spiritual aspect found in Mama Ya-Ya's numerology. Still, an interesting and admirable read.

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really hated this book. I dislike a lot of the children's "literature" I'm professionally obligated to read because it's so poorly done. As is Ninth Ward. But what I really, really hated in this instance was the dishonesty. Rhodes is from Pittsburgh and teaches creative writing (!!! She's qualified to teach writing like I'm qualified to teach neurosurgery) at Arizona State. Why, then, does she set this and all her adult novels (which appear to be 'naughty' mysteries) in New Orleans? She doesn't seem to have spent much time there, even as a vacationer. This book is just one ignorant tourist's cliche after another - voodoo, jazz, ghosts. I'm surprised there isn't a pirate ship.
Lanesha and her guardian, get this, Mama Ya-ya, begin the day with cafe au lait. I lived in New Orleans for 10 years and I don't believe, excepting Cafe du Monde, I ever saw cafe au lait ON A MENU, much less had it at someone's house. Same with pralines, which, by the way, are a kind of candy and something which is never "fresh-baked" as Rhodes describes them. Mama Ya-ya practices a sort of pseudoo-voodoo (ALL of the vodouisants I encountered in NOLA were white poseurs, btw) comprising numerology and Color-Me-Beautiful color analysis. I would wager my right hand that no-one in the Ninth Ward has ever said anything like "The universe shines with love."
I'm sure there is a good kid's book to be written about Katrina. The only thing Ninth Ward got right is the stench.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really loved Lanesha and her relationship with Mama YaYa, as well as how being an outsider gives Lanesha the courage to stand up to bullies and reach out to others who don't fit in. I also deeply admired how Lanesha seamlessly integrates her guardian's spiritualism and numerology with her own love of math and engineering.

My quibbles are minimal. One, I have a 12-yr-old child, so I couldn't help comparing the protag's thought processes to my kid's and feeling dubious. Two, the protag's constant references to dictionary definitions felt a little too didactic, "good for you" elements that were stuck in there to appeal to adults more than kids. Three, there is no epilogue and I REALLY wanted to know what happened in the aftermath.

[Wilhelmina Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fell in love with the protagonist of this book - 12-year-old Lanesha, an orphan raised by Mama Ya-Ya, the elderly midwife who delivered her. Lanesha can see and communicate with ghosts, but she also loves mathematics and words and longs to be an engineer. She has to use all of her talents, and a great deal of courage and fortitude (one of her favorite words) to survive when her neighborhood is flooded after Hurricane Katrina.

This book is beautifully written and tells a wonderful story of the power of love and family that transcends biological connections. A wonderful book for middle grade readers and up.

[Rkdk47 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great heart warming story about a child's perspective of the the Katrina disaster. The author mixes in some of the fantasy and mystery of New Orleans along with the normal aspects of being a middle school student in search of an identity. Her unique way of introducing vocabulary through the protagonist offers a chance for young readers to be introduced to new words. I loved this moving tale and would encourage both adults and children alike to read it.

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that is just plain unequivocally Good, in its writing, its story, its characters, and even in the much more subjective territory of the feelings it left me with.

Lanesha has lived all her twelve years in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans secure in the love of Mama Ya-Ya, the wise old woman who was the midwife at her birth. Her seventeen-year old mother, rejected by her well off family after she became pregnant, died giving birth to her...but she hasn't quite left her daughter. Her ghost still lies there on the bed where, still and unresponsive, still waiting for her baby to be born safely into the world.

Her Mama is just one of many ghost that Lanesha can see. Mama Ya-Ya has raised Lanesha in world where ghosts are just one fact of life, and everything around them--magnolia flowers, birds, numbers--has a meaning that transcends the quotidian. Despite being as poor as can be money-wise, Mama YaYa given Lanesah a childhood that is just about the warmest, most tenderly-drawn fictional childhood I can think of. Lanesha's suffered through a lot of teasing--crazy, spooky, and witch are some of the things she's called by the other kids. But when it gets too much, and she hides in the bathroom, she thinks of Mama YaYa's words--"'You are loved, Lanesha,' she always says. 'Lanesha, you are loved'" (page 22).

Lanesha might not have any friends at school, but she loves it all the same. She learns everything the teachers can give her (she dreams of being an engineer, and designing bridges, and her teacher, incidentally, is a gem). This school year looks like it might be different, though--there are promising signs that Lanesha will make friends, with both a neighbor boy, TaShon, and a girl in her class. All seems to be going gloriously well.

But reading this happy part of the book, and falling hard for Lanesha and Mama Ya-Ya, and their diverse and vibrant community, brought cold chills, and made me want to cry for the pity of it. Because I knew it was all a fragile soap bubble, about to pop-- it is late August of 2005, and Hurricane Katrina is forming off to the east. The Ninth Ward is doomed, and the courage and determination of Lanesha and TaShon are about to be put to a test that no child should have to undergo.


Now the book becomes a gripping story of children on their own, facing the possibility that there will be no rescue, facing the reality that they will have to save themselves. The great adventure-type of story, where ordinary kids are heros, and must do extraordinary things...

Gosh, it was a good. Brilliant in its characters, vivid with regard to place, gripping in its story. It's my pick for the Newbery this year.

[Bobby Simic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story involving Lanesha, a twelve-year-old living in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans just as Hurricane Katrina is about to hit the area. Using the wisdom and lessons from her elderly caretaker, Mama Ya-Ya, Lanesha is able to battle the storm and its after-effects.

I think I'm in the minority here, but I found this well-intentioned but a little bland. I feel Lanesha, while strong in spirit and intelligence, is also a character that I've read before in other books. She's poor, lonely, and has abandonment issues but still tries to maintain a positive attitude. Do you know how many characters are like that in children's literature!?! The supernatural aspect was half-baked, and aspects of the story, especially Lanesha's potential friends, were introduced but left without closure.

I'm not a fan of tidy endings. And I know that something as devastating and as complicated as Hurricane Katrina can't be wrapped up in a nice bow, but I found the story not to be open-ended but just incomplete.

[Dawn Edgar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this one because it was chosen for the Battle of the Books competition in our area (Pikes Peak Region, kind of a quiz bowl/trivia contest for fifth grade students, and I help sponsor this for our school). Palaccio's (sp?) "Wonder" was the other new book chosen this year. I am coming to know and love books written for kids this age...the messages are simple and pure, and this one did not disappoint in this manner.

I remember watching Hurricane Katrina unfold on television in 2005 and feeling such helplessness, as we do when we watch real tragedy happen in real time. I felt such a sadness about the things the people had to endure along with the bad weather--the fearful anticipation, the heat, the displacement of folks seemingly "un-displaceable," the inhumanity of being herded into the Super Dome like cattle, the less than human conditions they spent waiting out the storm and the resulting disasters of flooding from broken levees, and overall, the losses they felt on many levels. And also over hearing about those who refused to leave, or couldn't leave their homes and how many of them perished.

This book takes us into the mind and heart of a twelve year old girl enduring several of the above situations and how she changes inside throughout the story. Her life circumstances are already out of the norm and her longing for belonging is palpable. Written in a hopeful voice that sometimes falters like dropping a juggling ball, only to recover triumphantly with everything magically dancing in the air again, this book is rocked by my hero, Lanesha. Mama Ya-Ya, her adoptive mother figure, imparts much wisdom, such as how storms (presumably metaphorically in life and literal storms) both take away and provide.

Things I learned about: being born with a caul and what it implies superstitiously, what school and the neighborhood is/was? like in the ninth ward, midwifery, a little bit of voodoo spirituality, clairvoyance, seeing/communicating with the dead, being orphaned, and feeling freaky because of your differences. Not only this, but it helped me understand the timeline of the actual events of Hurricane Katrina from the personal point of view from those going through it. Some of these issues could be a perceived as little mature for the age group reading the story, but probably not as much as I want to think--nevertheless, it will open up discussion about issues not before touched on with parents and in classrooms.

My favorite quote: "The world can be a hard place sometimes, Lanesha. You have to have heart. You have to be strong. Parents want their children to grow up to be strong. Not just any strong, mind you, but loving strong."

[Titilayo · Rating 3 out of 5]

for some reason i thought this book would be a combination of Voodoo Season and [book:The Big Mama Stories|1558133. i seriously enjoyed reading the first book. it was almost as amazing my first actual visit to new orleans. since this is young adult fiction told from a preteen heroine birthed in the heart of the n.o. second most notorious neighborhood (after the french quarter) i figured it would have the sassy tone of the big mama stories. in a way i was correct. in a way i was wrong.

i think this book would fit well with 3rd/4th grade students. it is an excellent tool for teaching vocabulary. there are some great words woven into the tale with actual definitions and examples. it had an adolescent tone to the narrative they would appreciate. the action was swift and to the point. it was a little predictable; but that came from my own awareness about hurricane katrina.a child probably will not have the same level of memory about the event. unless they personally experienced the catastrophic natural disaster they would be spared some of the harsh reality. those of us who had cnn or wrote scholarly articles about the event are not as innocent in that regard.

i read a few chapters and stepped away from the book for a few days. i finished the rest of the story in one night. it was engaging despite the constant telling instead of showing how the story unfolds. a fair skinned child with light eyes born in a caul who sees ghosts and lives with an older woman versed in reading signs is as supernatural as it gets. the development of otherworldiness was weak until the plot climax. i got a good sense of the neighborhood. the pastel row houses, overly friendly people, and delicious food were just as i experienced it. there were lots of loose ends. i suppose its par for the course because the hurricane surely left thousands of people feeling the same way.

[Zoë · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed Ghost Boys by this author earlier in the year, and I generally enjoy disaster survival novels—this one is set during Hurricane Katrina—so I had high hopes for this book. And it did get off to a strong start. I really liked the main character, Lanesha, who manages to brush aside ostracism from the other students at school and just focuses on learning as much as she can. She's someone whose birthday treat might be a dictionary or an encyclopedia set or a pack of sparkly pens, so I can certainly relate.

The issue that I had with this book was the heavy reliance on supernatural elements. I had no problem with the fact that Lanesha saw ghosts (the reason that other students avoided her), or with her de-facto guardian seeing signs and visions. The problem was when those supernatural elements started driving the plot, so that it became more about reacting to visions than about surviving a hurricane.

In the lead-up to the hurricane, for example, the tension isn't primarily about getting supplies and figuring out what to do. It's about how Mama Ya-Ya had a vision of some mysterious blackness that would come after the hurricane, and was largely incapacitated by that vision, so that Lanesha had to figure out what to do on her own while worrying about whether Mama Ya-Ya was okay. Once the hurricane comes, certain survival actions are also determined not by the storm but by the visions. And for me, that just detracted a lot from the whole survival narrative.

So while I enjoyed the beginning of the book, I had more or less lost interest by the end. I was about 12 pages from finishing when I decided to set the book down and do my taxes instead, so that tells you something about how compelling it was. But I did finish it eventually, and I did appreciate the protagonist.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some things I liked about this book, but as a whole I don't think it fully delivers. The main character, Lanesha, is a likeable 12-year-old, and I'll admit I was charmed by her open love of school and learning. The lessons she learns (or starts to learn) throughout the novel - on friendship, family bonds, loss, internal strength and survival - are moving, and most readers can identify with Lanesha on one level or another. The story doesn't really pick up until mid-way through the novel when Lanesha and her neighbors start preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Katrina. From there, it's a tense and gripping journey through the storm and its aftermath - the only part where the author truly held all of my attention.

I found the mysticism of Lanesha's caretaker, Mama Ya Ya, interesting but the presence of the ghosts as the eventual crutch for Lanesha and TaShon's survival was a bit too predictable and neat. For some reason it doesn't work for me, the combination of the supernatural with a very real, very literal event that altered the lives of millions of people, and I found the ghosts more of a distraction from the story than anything else. As a native of Louisiana, much of the details and setting, while vivid, came across as cliched and occasionally inaccurate. I think the novel would have been more powerful for me had the author committed to an entirely realistic perspective supported by better research and personal experience of New Orleans.

The characters and bit of suspense were enough to keep this novel alive for me, but overall it was disappointing. I was hoping for a fantastic novel, but in the end it just doesn't live up to the potential.

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Rhodes's assertion that she had to write a lot for adults before she took the risk of writing for youngsters. I think too often adult writers are trying to make a fast buck on young readers and they don't truly respect their audience.

Rhodes has invented a beautiful strong girl in Lanesha...born in a caul, able to see ghosts, and shunned by many because of her individuality. Raised by Mama Ya Ya, not even a blood relative, Lanesha finds a way to survive not only the Hurricane Katrina storm, but the horrifying flooding after the storm.

This book is at points funny, frightening, and uplifting. It is unutterably sad as we watch Lanesha lose more and more of her life. The use of present tense verbs throughout adds to the horror, in my mind. We KNOW what's going to happen. We know the storm is not the worst of the devestation...so we know she's not safe. Her beloved Mama Ya Ya, who has the sight, knows, but cannot tell Lanesha without breaking the child's spirit, a spirit she's cultivated from her birth.

I have loved everything I have read by Jewell Parker Rhodes, this book included. This little gem is a new favorite.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do have issue with "fresh baked pralines." Since when are pralines baked?

[Dinah Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

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"But you are my sweetest gift. The life surprise that soothed all my ills and gave me my greatest joys. I feel so blessed you are mine."

"You know dirt don't hold the dead."

Jewell Parker Rhodes wrote Ninth Ward back in 2010 following the devastation left in the wake of hurricane Katrina which made landfall in LA on Monday, August 29, 2005.

The story opens a week before the storm arrives with Parker giving readers some insight into twelve year old Lanesha's life.

Lanesha was born with a caul and her mother died birthing her so now she is being raised by the midwife, Mama Ya-Ya, who helped deliver her. They have a beautiful relationship, but when the storm arrives---everything changes.

JPR wrote a heartfelt book from a child's POV about love, family, survival, and resiliency in the face of tragedy and destruction. Be sure to check it out.
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[Brandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so moving. The setting is brilliant done, to the point where I feel the heat and see the water. The characters are so full of life and love. Lanesha is such a wonderful child, and Mama Ya-Ya is just so gentle and giving. It tells such an important and heartbreaking story of Hurricane Katrina, but it also shows resilience and strength. I loved it.

[Amytiger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ninth Ward was named after a sector of New Orleans where Lanesha lived before IT happened. But even after IT I still lived in Ninth Ward in my mind. I often revisited scenes from the book from previous chapters because I couldn't get enough of Mama Ya-Ya's motherly fondness (1), the struggles of a girl who is found an outcast, bewitched, and, in essence, a freak (2), and a point of view that reminds me so well what it was like to be in the sixth grade (3).
(1) Mama Ya-Ya's motherly fondness. There is no love like a mother (or a motherly figure in this case) and her child (adoptive or not). When Mama Ya-Ya can't afford a good meal, she gets Lanesha a pack of glittery pens. When everyone at school calls Lanesha Devil Eye, Mama Ya-Ya makes her eye color sound heavenly. When all Lanesha wants is to be comforted, instead she gets the truth from Mama Ya-Ya. That's proof of my point.
(2)"Kids at school have always teased me: 'Crazy Lanesha,' 'Spooky Lanesha', 'Witch Lanesha.' I just try to ignore them. They make me feel bad and sometimes I even cry. Still, I don't tell them that if they're shot dead or drowned in the swamp or smashed by a car, they'll be glad I can see them. I'll remind them of home. Of being alive." That's called finding light in the dark. Also that's called proof of my point.
(3) When I was in the sixth grade, I was making a transition to the " darn teenage years". Here, though, Lanesha just turned twelve so we get to see all of her child ways still in tact. Written in a voice all twelve year olds will be able to relate to, we see Lanesha being her age. I read stories with a lot of characters not written in their age. They're either ridiculously young but are in love, figure things out that no one other than some sort of wizard would catch on to, and do things physically impossible; or are around 16-25 years old but when the world's fate is in danger, are fawning over the question whether someone likes him/her or not. It gets very irritating. To see Lanesha act and think her age was refreshing and I loved that about her. That's proof of my point.
If you haven't caught on to what the "point" is, it's to hurry up and read this book!

[Natalie Varnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genre: Magical Realism
Summary: Lanesha is a twelve year old girl that is growing up in the 9th Ward of New Orleans during the time of Katrina. She is being raised by an elderly woman that she calls “Mama Ya-Ya.” Lanesha holds a special gift that allows her to connect to the loved ones of her past. Her special gift gives her strength to keep on being strong.
a) I found the book’s plot very interesting.
b) This book retells the horrific storm of Katrina through a twelve year old orphan’s eye. Lanesha has never met her mother in flesh in blood, but she has encountered her mother several times as a ghost. The appearance of Lanesha’s mother as a ghost throughout the story adds to the suspense and build of the story. The reader gets a sense through foreshadowing that something major is going to happen.
c) Lanesha looks to her mother’s ghost for answers and guidance. Her mother is there to look after her. “How bad is the storm going to be?” (pg. 107) Lanesha is asking her mother to tell her how bad the storm is going to be. Mama Ya-Ya is a strong character throughout the story to that helps Lanesha be resilent as well as help the story progress. The author includes foreshadowing of Mama Ya-Ya’s fate. “I’ve been staying alive because I thought you needed me.” (page 142).
Curriculum Connection:
This is a good book to introduce/remember hurricane Katrina. I would like to take time to talk about this infamous hurricane and what we have learned about that experience.

[Barb Middleton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lanesha watched from the porch as the paper bag spun wildly across the street like tumbleweed. New Orleans was a ghost town with people fleeing from Hurricane Katrina. All except Mama Ya-Ya and Lanesha. They didn’t have a car to leave even if they wanted to.

In the book, Ninth Ward, by Jewell Parker Rhoades, Lanesha is an orphan raised by Mama Ya-Ya, an 82-year-old midwife. Their story is about love and survival in a tough part of town. The characters are likeable: Mama Ya-Ya sits back in her chair. Mama Ya-Ya is so tiny, and the chair almost swallows her. Her feet barely touch the floor. Her hair is silver and her skin reminds me of a walnut, all wrinkly brown. On the wall above her head is a picture of her favorite President, William Jefferson Clinton. p. 8

The story is predictable because we know what happens after Hurricane Katrina hit. Lanesha’s story is a small moment in time and how she, Mama Ya-Ya, and TaShon survive or don’t survive the disaster. I thought the story line of Lanesha seeing ghosts was a little odd, but I can see why the author used it as a belief brought to America from African culture. It fit with the story but was unbelieveable for me. I can see many readers liking that feature. I also found Lanesha always giving the definition of words annoying. Enjoyable story.

[Karen Ball · Rating 4 out of 5]

I see darkness on the horizon. Rolling, rolling in like a too-warm blanket...
I shiver. Tell myself not to be afraid. We'll survive the hurricane.
Ghosts told me so.
Lanesha is 12, and has grown up in the poor neighborhood of New Orleans' Ninth Ward. She lives with Mama YaYa, a healer and midwife who delivered Lanesha, but couldn't save her teenage mother. Lanesha's mother's "uptown family" has never wanted her, but MamaYaya has loved her as if she were her own. Lanesha has always been able to see ghosts, including her mother, who has never left Mama YaYa's house. She is also smart, and loves math and school, even though she has few friends. When Mama YaYa dreams of a storm and a blackness that follows, they are both confused, until Hurricane Katrina appears in the Gulf and advances on the city. They have no money to evacuate, and so they stay in their house, hunkered down with some basic supplies. It's up to Lanesha to use everything she has learned, from school, from Mama YaYa, and from the ghosts, in order to survive the storm and the flood that follows. Beautifully written historical fiction, with magical realism and some of the best characters around! Lanesha is one of the most courageous and resilient girls I have ever read about. 6th grade and up.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew I wanted to read this book ever since reading my sister's review over a year ago:

http://charlotteslibrary.blogspot.com...

So I was happy to win a copy of my own in a giveaway. It is indeed a lovely, sad -- as any book set in the Ninth Ward in late August 2005 is bound to be -- but ultimately hopeful book. I was expecting it to be lyrical in the way that works of magical realism often are (12 year-old Lanesha and her caregiver, Mama YaYa, both see ghosts), and to an extent it is. But it also turned out to be a much more gripping read than I expected. The greater part of the book takes place in the days leading up to Katrina, and for the reader, knowing what is to come, the tension mounts as the storm makes its increasingly ominous way towards New Orleans, even as Lanesha focuses on more immediate concerns involving schoolmates and neighbors and a stray dog. In the storm's aftermath, the book becomes a tale of survival, and also love and courage.

My only (very slight) disappointment is that the cover of the paperback is not as hauntingly beautiful as the hardcover jacket illustration (the edition that I've shelved).

Thank you, Jewell Parker Rhodes, for your lovely book.

[Francesca Forrest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely book. I treasured each moment looking at the world through Lanesha's eyes: her loving thoughts about Mama Yaya, the great-grandmother-aged woman who raised her, her thoughts on school, on math symbols and words, her thoughts on other kids. Readers know that Katrina is coming; readers know that Lanesha, living in the Ninth Ward, is in danger, but Lanesha doesn't. For Lanesha, building a friendship with TaShon, a boy in her grade who's as much of an outsider as she is, and accepting the overtures of friendship from Ginia, a girl Lanesha can't believe would want to befriend her, are the most pressing matters. And I could settle right in with these. And then the storm comes, and Lanesha shows her mettle.

This story really impressed me. It's at once intimate and small-scale and also very large scale. (ETA: hmm, I said this about The Dubious Hills too. What can I say; it's something I appreciate in a book.) It has a tinge of the supernatural, but in a warm, real way.

Now I don't know if twelve-year-olds (Lanesha is twelve) would like it as much as I did. But I believe a book finds its audience, and I'm really glad this one found me.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lanesha was born with a caul covering her face. Mama Ya-Ya tells her this is the reason she sees ghosts, including the ghost of her mother who died giving her life 12 years earlier. Living in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, where her better-off relatives left her to live in poverty but joy with Mama Ya-Ya, Lanesha accepts the spirits as part of her daily life but knows that this gift or curse sets her apart, as does living with the woman who served as midwife at her birth and the births of so many others. It is the year of Hurrican Katrina, and the storm will bring about much change for Lanesha and her Ninth Ward family. Mama Ya-Ya's love, years of advice, and belief in Lanesha's inner strength may not be enough to make sure Lanesha, Mama Ya-Ya, and Lanesha's new found friends survive the storm and flooding that changed the face of New Orleans forever. Lanesha's voice is loud and clear as she narrates her tale. A wonderful read for middle school students who may not fully comprehend the devestation of Hurrican Katrina and the days of flooding following the levee collapse. A poignant reminder to all of the heart and strength of those who survived.

[LALa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found it to be a good story for an audience of young readers, and anyone really. It deals with the realities for many children in a way that doesn't hide some of the harshness of childhood. I found heartwarming, and from a sincere place. Lanesha is a wonderfully written character and I appreciate that these kinds of works exist for our youth.

[Julie Suzanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was just okay all around. The first third bored me, and I often struggle with books about people seeing spirits regularly in their daily life because I just don't believe in it, so that kind of ruined it (this reads as realistic fiction, not a ghost story). The middle part captured my attention because I knew how devastating Katrina was going to be for the Ninth Ward, so I was excited to see what Lanesha was going to experience. I did appreciate scenes of the neighborhood having a big party ahead of time to use up the food before the power inevitably went out, how neighbors took care of each other (and what they did to prepare for the storm and the showing of why some people did not evacuate), and this is why I give it two stars instead of one. Lanesha's character growth felt very forced and fake. I don't think I could have been more disappointed in this.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

You will be at the edge of your seat as you read this one! Perfect for 7th/8th graders.
Has great literary devices!

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up
I loved the characters and the story told in the book

[Jjean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Think we all remember Hurricane Katrina - Well written, interesting story of not only the hurricane but some explanation of life in the "ninth ward" - how a strong, young girl, saved herself and her friend - Held my interest, a fast read.

[Chloe Hey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apart from the rather creepy aspect of ghosts. It is a good story and I liked it very much.