Chapter Book #6

Author:  Jewell Parker Rhodes
Title:  Ninth Ward
Illustrator:  N/A
Readability score:  Grade 4 to Grade 8
Genre:  Fiction
Subgenre:  Fantasy/ Realistic Fiction
Theme:  Strength and courage are key to survival.  The ones we love never really leave us.
Primary and secondary characters:  Lanesha, Mama Ya-Ya, TaShon, Ginia, Spot, Miss Johnson
Awards: Coretta Scott King Award
Date of Publication: 2010
Publishing Company:  Little, Brown, and Company
ISBN number:  978-0-316-04307-6

Ninth Ward  takes place in the Ninth Ward neighborhood in New Orleans.  This neighborhood was hit the hardest during Hurricane Katrina on August 28, 2005.  The main character, Lanesha, lives with her grandmother, Mama Ya-Ya, in the Ninth Ward.  The story begins on the Sunday before the hurricane hit.  Lanesha tells us that she was born special.  Her mother was 17 when she had Lanesha.  Mama Ya-Ya birthed Lanesha and took her in as her own granddaughter when her mother died during childbirth. Mama Ya-Ya and Lanesha share a special talent.  They see ghosts.  Lanesha sees her mother all the time.  She usually is in her bedroom.  Lanesha doesn't have many friends at school because they think it is weird that she sees ghosts.  On Sunday, they celebrate Lanesha's birthday.  The next day, Lanesha must go to school.  Mama Ya-Ya was a midwife.  The last child she birthed was TaShon, who is Lanesha's classmate.  He is very quiet.  On Tuesday, Lanesha is tutored by her teacher, Miss Johnson.  Miss Johnson believes Lanesha should be an engineer because she is good at math.  On her way home that day, Lanesha comes across some boys who are beating up TaShon and his new dog, Spot.  She stands up to them and they leave.  TaShon asks Lanesha to keep the puppy.  She takes him home and Mama Ya-Ya mysteriously already knew she was bringing him.  She has the 'sight.'  She also knows there is a storm coming before the news even announces it Tuesday night.  On Wednesday, Mama Ya-Ya is upset because of a dream she had about the coming storm.  Everyone in the neighborhood is concerned about it.  After school, Lanesha and her friend, Ginia, must go to the store to stock up on food.  Neighbors board up their windows.  By Thursday, Hurricane Katrina has become a category two  hurricane.  It is building.  Mama Ya-Ya knows it is not going to be good.  School is canceled.  Lanesha goes to school anyway to talk to Miss Johnson, who is packing her things to evacuate town.  She advises Lanesha to do the same, but she can't.  Mama Ya-Ya can't drive and they don't own a car.  Lanesha goes home to prepare the house for the storm.  Friday comes and the storm is headed directly for New Orleans.  Some people are out in the street, drinking and eating.  Saturday brings a message:  Evacuation is mandatory.  But Lanesha can't leave.  TaShon must go with his father to the Superdome. Saturday evening, Lanesha tries to talk to her ghost mother, but she doesn't respond.  Sunday has arrived and Lanesha prepares food and boards up windows.  Most of the neighbors have gone.  Mama Ya-Ya tells Lanesha to move the necessities upstairs.  She knows they must get higher.   As the night comes, so does the storm.  It hits with a fury that no one had ever witnessed before.  Lanesha, Mama Ya-Ya and Spot huddle in the bathtub all night until it passes.  The next morning, Monday, Lanesha goes outside to assess the damage.  The neighborhood is badly damaged.  TaShon comes.  He got separated with his parents at the Superdome and came back home, thinking they would find him.  As the day wears on, Mama Ya-Ya knows a flood is coming.  Lanesha, TaShon, Mama Ya-Ya and Spot move to the attic as the water begins to rise through the house.  Monday night, Mama Ya-Ya dies.  The water continues to rise until the attic is filling up.  Lanesha and TaShon break through the window and they climb to the roof with Spot.  The whole world is drowned.  They stay on the roof all night and the whole next day.  They find a rowboat and try to reach it.  Lanesha can't swim; and as she tries to reach the boat, she gets stuck under the awful Mississippi water.  Her mother saves her.  She, TaShon, and Spot make it into the boat.  They paddle through the water until a motorboat finds them.  Lanesha knows that she and TaShon will be okay now that they have help.  She knows that Mama Ya-Ya and her mother will always look after her.

This story is a very accurate description of the terrible Hurricane Katrina that ripped through New Orleans.  While the story itself is not true, many of the victims of the hurricane went through the same horrors that Lanesha did.  I feel that this book would be appropriate for a fifth grade class to read at the beginning of the school year, around the date of the hurricane.  Natural disasters are a very real part of our nation's history.  I would have the students read this book in their literature circles.  As they read, I would have them have grand conversations.  They can discuss what they think it would be like to live in New Orleans.  They can research the storm.   I would have them complete a writing assignment in which they pretend that they can talk to a deceased person, maybe a family member.  They could ask them questions, just as Lanesha asked her mother questions.  What would they say to the deceased?  Once the book has been read, the students could research the Ninth Ward.  They could do presentations on before and after shots of the neighborhood.  It would also be great if the students could create a fundraiser to send to the Hurricane Katrina Relief efforts that are still being carried out today, seven years later.  These activities will help the students understand the devastation of the storm and relate to the victims of it.