Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker-Rhodes. 220 p. Little, Brown and Company, August, 2010. 9780316043076.
Happy Thursday! We are a one-session day from the holiday break! I don't say half-day, because it's not. It's 3/4 of a day or early dismissal. Haha.
#tbt features Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker-Rhodes. This present tense, first-person narrative begins on Lanesha's twelfth birthday. She lives with Mama Ya-Ya because her mother died giving birth to her and her only living relatives want nothing to do with her. Mama Ya-Ya can see the future and knows there's a big storm heading for New Orleans and that their neighborhood, Ninth Ward, will be hard hit. Lanesha herself has second sight. She attributes this to the caul that covered her face when she was born. She also sees the ghost of her dead mother, so we have a potent combination of magical realism and the very real disaster that was Hurricane Katrina.
Ninth Ward was published in 2010. It was Ms. Parker-Rhodes children's literature debut and was named an ALA Notable Book, was a School Library Journal Best Book and was on the Amelia Bloomer list.
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