10 Years After Hurricane Katrina: Four New Books

It's hard to believe that it is already 10 years since Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans on August 29, 2005.  Katrina's impact on New Orleans and the people who lived there was catastrophic and later, during the rebuilding, it turned into a transformative expericnce for many.  But while the images of Katrina's devestation may still be seared into the minds of many of us, young readers probably have no memory of it at all.  There has already been a number of excellent books written about this storm to help them understand what happened and this year, there are a few new ones to add to the growing body of Hurricane Katrina literature:

Marvelous Cornelius: Hurricane Katrina and the Spirit of New Orleans by Phil Bildner, illustrated by John Parra

Chronicle Books, 2015, 44 pages (Age 5+)

Written in the spirit of good folklore and based on the life of an actual person, Cornelius Washington, Marvelous Cornelius is the story of a real New Orleans garbage collector.  Cornelius does his job with all the enthusiam and finesse of a dancer, greeting everyone as he goes along his route in tossing bags of garbage into the truck and keeping his part of the city clean as a whistle.  But when Hurricane Katrina buries his beloved city in all kinds of garbage, Cornelius makes it his mission to help clean it up.  And before he knows it, all this friends on his route, and even strangers from around the country are there to help bring New Orleans back to life with Cornelius.

Though based on Cornelius Washington, this is NOT a true story but rather a story about the kind of spirit New Orleans needed after Hurricane Katrina swept through leaving a wake of distraction and death.  The painted illustration carry the idea of folklore in style and the palette flat colors used.  Before the read the quote by Martin Luther King, Jr at the beginning of the book and Phil Bildner's Author's Note at the end.

Sadly, Cornelius Washington passed away in in 2008 at the age 48.

Finding Someplace by Denise Lewis Patrick

Henry Holt, 2015, 224 pages (Age 8+)

Living in the Ninth Ward in New Orleans, 12 year old Theresa Arielle Boone, or Ressie as her friends and family called her, can't wait for her 13th birthday on August 29, 2005.  She's made herself a beatiful skirt to wear, with matching shoes, thanks to an early birthday present from her older brother Junior.  Even after the mayor issues a mandatory evacuation noitice, and as her friends start to leave New Orleans with their families, Reesie stills holds on to hope of a celebration.  Her mother, a nurse, wants to leave, too, but ber father, a police officer, insists on remaining at home because of work,  Reesie is so excited, she ignores the warning words and weather reports of an oncoming hurricane that promises to be big.

On the evening before her birthday, Hurricane Katrina reaches New Orleans.  Reesie, home alone, goes over to pick up her birthday cake from an elderly neighbor, Miss Martine, known for her delicious coconut cakes.  As the storm picks up strenght, Reesie stays with Miss Martine who begins to tell her all about her illustrious past and gives Reesie a book of poetry she had written and published.  The next morning, stranded in rising waters and strong winds, a knock on the door brings the older brother of Reesie's best friend and his brand new wife.  Luckily, Dre is able to get the four of them up into the crawl space of Miss Martine's house and then, onto the roof, where a boat finally rescues them as the storm begins to let up.

As residents of New Orleans begin to realize that life as they had known it is gone, Reesie's mother whisks her away to New Jersey and away from her father.  Will she ever be able to return to New Orleans and everyone and everything she loves, including her father?

Finding Someplace is written in two partts, the first part covers the days before, during and right after Hurricane Katrina, the second part jumps to December 2005 and Reesie's life in New Jersey.  I didn't find the descriptions of the hurricane to be quite a harrowing as other novels I've read about about people stranded in New Orleans when it hit.  Even the roof rescue seemed to happen too quickly and easily, especially if you can remember those heartbreaking scenes of desperate people on their rooftops trying to get help.  What I did find poignant were the descriptions of the water destroying all the  memorabilia of people's lives, often the only things they owned of a beloved person.

But while I found the hurricane part lacking, I did like how Patrick dealth with the more long range aftermath of the storm and it's impact on Reesie's family.  That is something you don't see in too many of these stories.

I found Finding Someplace to be an interesting addition to the Hurrican Katrina body of literature that continues to grow.  For most of it's readers, Hurricane Katrina is history  and for that reason, it was nice that some of the chapters in Finding Someplace give the date and time to orient the reader, but I would have really liked a detailed Hurricane Katrina timeline to be able to refer to.  Going to the computer to check the chronology of the storm was really distracting.

Another Kind of Hurricane by Tamara Ellis Smith

Random House, 2015, 336 pages (Age 9+)

When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans, 10 year old Zavion and his father just barely excape from a second floor window in their home, jumping onto a door as the flood waters rise, destroying everything that he has known and loved his entire life.  But to add to that trauma, Zavion slips off the door into the oily, snake infested flood waters and almost drowns, a terrifying experience until his papa pulls him out.
Eventually, Zavion and papa get to Baton Rouge.  There, Zavion is given a bag of clothing, including a pair of jeans with a large marble in the pocket.  The marble becomes a kind of talisman for Zavion, who draws a particular kind of comfort from having it, as though it contains something magical.

Far away from New Orleans, in northern Vermont, Henry, also 10, is grappling with the accidental death of his best friend Wayne in a fall from a cliff on Mount Mansfield.  At his friend's funeral, Henry secretly removed a large marble from Wayne's coffin.  Slowly, through flashbacks, the importance of the marble is learned.  When Henry's mother donates the jeans with the marble in the pocket to Hurricane Katrina victims, Henry is compelled to travel to New Orleans with Wayne's father Jake, a long distance trucker, to find it.

Both boys are haunted by their own traumatic memories and suffering from PTSD, but eventually their stories converge, offering the possibility of healing and hope despite overwhelming grief.

The novel centers on the marble, almost like it is a point of gravity pulling Henry and Zavion closer to each other.  At the same time, Tamara Ellis Smith moves her diverse cast of characters around like a well thought out chess game as the marble moves closer and closer to its destiny.  This is Smith's debut novel.

Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans written and illustrated by Don Brown

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015, 96 pages (Age 12+)

This graphic non-fiction book is probably one of the most powerful Hurricane Katrina works I've read as it chronicles the storm from its very beginning as a swirl leaving Africa to the rebuilding of New Orleans.  In a sense, this is a biography of Katrina, and how it impacted every aspect of life that most vulnerable city - residents, building, homes, levees and more.  The illustrations are raw but honest, done in pen and ink and digital paint in monochromatic shades of brown, black, gray during the storm, with more color is added in the aftermath, as the rains subsided.  Brown has captured not just the living, such as people on their rooftops hoping for rescue, and others crowded into the Superdome, but also the dead who were left in the flood waters for days.  There is a lot to be said about Hurricane Katrina, including issues of racism, indifference, ineptitude and opportunistic crime, but there are also acts of courage and unadulterated kindness and Brown does ends on a note of hope and rebuilding.  But he never whitewashes any part of what happened in on August 29, 2005.  Drowned City is a work not to be missed but it is also a work of heartbreaking truth.

Other books to help young readers understand and explore the impact of Hurricane Katrina:

A Penguin Named Patience: A Hurricane Katrina Rescue Story by Suzanne Lewis, illustrated by Lisa Anchin, Sleeping Bear Press, 2015, 32 Pages, age 4+

Eight Dolphins of Katrina: A True Tale of Survival by Janet Wyman Coleman, illustrated by Yan Nascimbene, HMH, 2013, 40 pages, age 5+

Two Bobbies by Kirby Larson (Bloomsbury, 2008, 32 pages, age 4+

A Place Where Hurricanes Happen by Renee Watson, illustrated by Shadra Strickland, Random House, 2014, 40 pages, age 5+

I Survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005 by Lauren Tarshis, illustrated by Scott Dawson, Scholastic, 2011, 112 pages, age 7+

Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere by Julie T. Lamana, Chronicle Books, 2014, 320 pages, age 8+

Ninth Ward by Jewel Parker Rhodes, Little, Brown, 2010, 217 pages, age 10+

Saint Louis Armstrong Beach by Brenda Woods, Penguin, 2011, 144 pages age 10+

Zane and the Hurricane by Rodman Philbrick, Scholastic, 2014, 192 pages, age 10+

Zane and the Hurricane by Rodman Philbrick

Zane Dupree, a 12 year old biracial boy (father is black, mom is white), is happy living in New Hampshire with his mom and his little dog Bandy.  Zane's dad was killed in a car accident before he was born, so Zane really didn't him and it seems that all this dad's relatives were gone as well.  But then, his mom discovers that Zane has a great grandmother living in New Orleans, who didn't know he existed either.  Not only that, but she had raised his dad, James, like he was her own child...that is, until he ran away.

Now, it's the end of summer 2005, and Zane and Bandy are spending the last week of vacation before school begins visiting his great grandmother Beatrice Jackson, called Miss Trissy by everyone who knows her.  Bothered by the heat and humidity, Zane is, nevertheless, anxious to hear what Miss Trissy has to tell him about his dad.  But when he asks, she always puts off answering.  Before he has a chance to learn anything, warnings about a big hurricane named Katrina are issued for New Orleans and Zane's mom books him and his great grandmother on a flight to New Hampshire.

But when the flight is cancelled, and a mandatory evacuation is ordered for all of New Orleans, Zane, Miss Trissy and Bandy get a ride out in the church.  Traffic is at a stand still, and then, Bandy suddenly jumps out the open van window, running down the highway.  Zane jumps out to get him, but before he knows it, Bandy has brought him back to Miss Trissy's house.  And now, it is too late to go back to the van.

Stranded, alone and scared, the two weather out the hurricane in the house, but the next day, despite the sun shining, the levees break, putting most of New Orleans under water, including Miss Trissy's house, the water coming almost as high as the attic.  Luckily, Bandy's barking attracts a young girl and an older man in a canoe, and soon, Zane and Bandy are paddling away with new friends, Trudell Manning, called Mr. Tru, a New Orleans musician and his ward Malvina, a girl around Zane's age.

Thinking they will soon be safe and sound in a shelter somewhere, the three discover that the horror that is Hurricane Katrina isn't quite over for them.  Thinking they have found a quiet resprite at a school where people have gathered, they come face to face with the drug dealer who had supplied Malvina's mom with drugs before she entered rehab.  Now he wants to take Malvina with him, insurance that her mother won't tell the authorities the names of everyone involved in his drug dealing.

In their escape, Mr. Tru hurts his foot and they decide to head to the safety of the Superdome, where so many others who couldn't get out of New Orleans have gathered.  But when they finally get there, they find there is no one to help them or tend to Mr. Tru's now infected foot.

Caught up in all the chaos the followed Hurricane Katrina, will Zane ever get out of the hurricane nightmare he has found himself in and will he ever find out why his dad ran away?

My heart broke when Hurricane Katrina put New Orleans under water in 2005.  It was always a favorite city of mine, and I wondered if it would ever come back.  Happily, it has, but it hasn't been easy.  But Hurricane Katrina brought to light a lot of things that people may not have wanted to be aware of before.  And many of those things are present in this very carefully researched novel, narrated by Zane, an outsider who can make observations about what he sees and experiences.  As he and his new friends paddle through New Orleans seeking safety, class and race distinctions, especially who gets out in time and who ends up having to stay in the Superdome or on top of their roofs, are very clear to him as is whose house is on higher ground and whose ends up underwater.

 Philbrick does do a top notch job depicting the chaos, the sense of abandonment the black population in New Orleans felt by authorities who should have been able to help (remember those heartbreaking images on TV at the time), the oppressive heat and humidity, the smells, the snakes and dead bodies in the water as the trio paddle through, and the danger everyone faced, even after losing everything they owned.  However, these depictions are done in such a way that they won't turn off young readers.

And, this is still a coming of age story.  Zane has has much to learn about his personal family history, his cultural heritage and just who he is, even if it takes a hurricane to give him the impetus he needs to do that.   Some of the action may seem a little over the top and the ending might seem a little pat after some of the things the Zane experiences, but I think both are forgivable in this imminently readable, historically accurate novel.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was borrowed from a friend