What do you think?
Rate this book
Killer Flood
Dan and Pete are excited to have a sleepover at Dan's house while their parents are away. Their excitement turns to fear when the dam breaks and a killer flood smashes through town. The boys decide to stay put until they realize that Dan's elderly neighbors may be in danger. When they reach the neighbors house, they find one of them near death. His lifesaving medicine is under water, and his wife is too old to make her way to town to get more. Both boys brave the flood to go find help.
64 pages, Paperback
First published December 12, 2014
2 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
Jeff Gottesfeld
85 books43 followers The greatest unknown milestone of the then-nascent civil rights movement took place in the summer of 1939, in Alexandria, Virginia, when young Black attorney S.W. Tucker led a sit-down strike by young Black men in his hometown to try to integrate the then-new Alexandria Public Library.
He instructed his men to go into the library, ask for library cards, and when they were denied because of their race, to pick a book from the shelves, sit down, and read. Arrests followed, of course. But Tucker had assembled the press, and the next day, the Sit-Down Strike was national news. Save for the start of World War II a week or so later, it might be as well-known today as the Birmingham AL bus boycott.
FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT TO READ (Creston, September 9, 2025) is the story, told for kids with my co-author (and dear friend!) Michelle Y. Green and beautifully illustrated by Kim Holt. If access to public libraries matter to you, this is the book for you. Oh! The library was finally integrated...in 1960 or so. And there's an elementary school in Alexandria today named for this hometown hero who went on to become one of the ablest Black civil rights attorneys of his era.
He instructed his men to go into the library, ask for library cards, and when they were denied because of their race, to pick a book from the shelves, sit down, and read. Arrests followed, of course. But Tucker had assembled the press, and the next day, the Sit-Down Strike was national news. Save for the start of World War II a week or so later, it might be as well-known today as the Birmingham AL bus boycott.
FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT TO READ (Creston, September 9, 2025) is the story, told for kids with my co-author (and dear friend!) Michelle Y. Green and beautifully illustrated by Kim Holt. If access to public libraries matter to you, this is the book for you. Oh! The library was finally integrated...in 1960 or so. And there's an elementary school in Alexandria today named for this hometown hero who went on to become one of the ablest Black civil rights attorneys of his era.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 2, 2019
Easy reading. Boy-centric but, really, girls will get this book, too. Written as a Hi-Lo Chapter book with very short sentences, like-able characters Dan and Pete who kids will easily identify with and familiar neighbours like the old folks next door, the Lands who love Dan and his pal Pete.
Plot is simple: Dan's town lies in a valley and it tends to experience floods but nothing like what happens here, a dam breaks and the water level rises in no time to waist high and higher. Using his smarts, Dan drags a water terrified Pete to the flooded kitchen to find out where the meows are coming from; no worries, Fluffy is way up on top of the fridge. Next, they fight their way through cold water to the Lands where they find the couple upstairs, Mr. Land in dire need of his diabetic meds, dry ones, and now! Dan decides they must get to the main street and break into the drugstore if they have to, and they do using Mr. Land's rowboat, down the flooded main part of town! In the dark!
So many perilous things happen to the two boys. A nice cop and medics sort the boys out, contact their parents who are trapped in the city, a night out gone wrong and very wet, and Mr. Land is saved.
Using kid-centric language, a realistic everyday setting and something that could happen in many places: floods, high water, someone in need of help, the author creates a friendly reading adventure for the reluctant reader or a reader struggling to follow content, language, plot.
Dan and Pete learn valuable lessons all while just doing the right thing. Killer Flood is a winner.
Plot is simple: Dan's town lies in a valley and it tends to experience floods but nothing like what happens here, a dam breaks and the water level rises in no time to waist high and higher. Using his smarts, Dan drags a water terrified Pete to the flooded kitchen to find out where the meows are coming from; no worries, Fluffy is way up on top of the fridge. Next, they fight their way through cold water to the Lands where they find the couple upstairs, Mr. Land in dire need of his diabetic meds, dry ones, and now! Dan decides they must get to the main street and break into the drugstore if they have to, and they do using Mr. Land's rowboat, down the flooded main part of town! In the dark!
So many perilous things happen to the two boys. A nice cop and medics sort the boys out, contact their parents who are trapped in the city, a night out gone wrong and very wet, and Mr. Land is saved.
Using kid-centric language, a realistic everyday setting and something that could happen in many places: floods, high water, someone in need of help, the author creates a friendly reading adventure for the reluctant reader or a reader struggling to follow content, language, plot.
Dan and Pete learn valuable lessons all while just doing the right thing. Killer Flood is a winner.
July 7, 2018
So often, books written at this level are babyish or silly. This is truly not! Dan and Pete are in a very realistic situation, spending the night alone (under the supervision of elderly neighbors) when the local dam breaks and their homes are flooded. While Pete is terrified and might just shut down, Dan steps up and not only leads his friend to safety, but brings rescue for his neighbors as well. All using limited vocabulary and short sentences that emerging readers need!
November 5, 2022
I give it 4 stars. I thought it was an interesting, accessible book with a good plot.
Review from a middle schooler below, who gave it 3 stars.
There were two kids and it was raining outside for a week. The dam broke and everything was flooded. They found their neighbor. Mr. land had diabetes so they needed medicine, and went out to get it. They got the medicine and came back. He was fine then a year later they celebrated.
It has been too short and I didn't like it that it was really easy to guess what will happen next so there were no surprises!
Review from a middle schooler below, who gave it 3 stars.
There were two kids and it was raining outside for a week. The dam broke and everything was flooded. They found their neighbor. Mr. land had diabetes so they needed medicine, and went out to get it. They got the medicine and came back. He was fine then a year later they celebrated.
It has been too short and I didn't like it that it was really easy to guess what will happen next so there were no surprises!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews