Ninth Ward [Hardcover]

Jewell Parker Rhodes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 16, 2010 | Age Range: 10 and up | Lexile Measure: 470L (What's this?)

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.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 5-8–Communicating with ghosts, including the spirit of her mother who died giving birth to her, is a gift that Lanesha, 12, has had for as long as she can remember. The girl's beloved caretaker, Mama Ya-Ya, a midwife and healer, has a gift that allows her to predict the future. When she begins to sense that a big storm is coming to their much-loved New Orleans neighborhood, both she and Lanesha must trust in their senses and in one another to survive. Lanesha is a wonderful character who exudes resilience and fortitude in the face of a catastrophe as well as a personal vulnerability in terms of her status as an orphan and an outsider. Words, numbers, and colors as seen through her eyes show the magic and wonder that exist in everyday things. The unique writing style even allows the unlikely combination of elderly Mama Ya-Ya's heady scents of Vicks Vapor Rub and Evening in Paris perfume to seem wonderful and inviting. Although the outcome of Hurricane Katrina is known, the clever writing allows the unavoidable tragedy to unfold in such a haunting and suspenseful manner that the extreme sense of foreboding and ultimate destruction is personalized and unforgettable. Heartbreak and hope are reflected in Lanesha's story, which will capture even reluctant readers due to the inventive storytelling and the author's ability to bring history to life.Margaret Auguste, Franklin Middle School, Somerset, NJ
© Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina is the setting for this tense novel that blends the drama of the catastrophic storm with magic realism. Twelve-year-old Lanesha’s teenage mother died while giving birth to her, and, because her mother’s wealthy uptown family won’t have anything to do with her, she is raised in the Ninth Ward by loving Mama Ya-Ya, 82, who feels like her “mother and grandmother both.” Born with a caul over her eyes, Lanesha is teased at school, but she is strengthened by her fierce caretaker’s devotion and by a teacher who inspires Lanesha to become an engineer and build bridges. Lanesha also has “second sight,” which includes an ability to see her mother’s ghost. As the storm nears and the call comes for mandatory evacuation, Mama Ya-Ya envisions that she will not survive, but Lanesha escapes the rising water in a small rowboat and even rescues others along the way. The dynamics of the diverse community enrich the survival story, and the contemporary struggle of one brave child humanizes the historic tragedy. Grades 5-8. --Hazel Rochman

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; 1 edition (August 16, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316043079
• ISBN-13: 978-0316043076
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 1 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #560,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

http://www.jewellparkerrhodes.com
http://www.jewellparkerrhodes.com/children/

Jewell Parker Rhodes is the award-winning author of the historical novels, Voodoo Dreams, Magic City, Douglass' Women, and the contemporary voodoo-inspired trilogy, Season, Moon, Hurricane. She has also written a memoir, Porch Stories: A Grandmother's Guide to Happiness, two writing guides include: Free Within Ourselves: Fiction Lessons for Black Authors and The African American Guide to Writing and Publishing Nonfiction, and the children's novel, Ninth Ward.

Her work has been published in Germany, Italy, Canada, Turkey, and the United Kingdom and reproduced in audio and for NPR's "Selected Shorts." Her literary awards include: the American Book Award, the National Endowment of the Arts Award, the Black Caucus of the American Library Award for Literary Excellence, the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award for Outstanding Writing, and two Arizona Book Awards. Ninth Ward, selected as one of the "Best Books of 2010" by School Library Journal, has received a Parents' Choice Foundation Gold Award, the Coretta Scott King Author Honor Award, and the 2011 Jane Addams Peace Association Honor Award.

Dr. Jewell Parker Rhodes is the Artistic Director for Global Engagement and the Piper Endowed Chair of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What a pleasant surprise! January 31, 2011

By M. Heiss

Format:Hardcover

I actually like this book. I was NOT expecting to like it, at all. The first pages open with a little girl born with a caul, a magical midwife tells her she has second sight, and she sees ghosts.

Groan... Could it get any worse?

In fact, it gets better. MUCH better. I have no reservations about my children reading this book.

Yes, there is a bit of an altar situation with Catholic saints and voodoo gods, and quite a few ghosts. Our family doesn't do ghosts. But it's good fiction, and the religion stuff is no weirder than the religion in "A Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

GREAT pro-school message. Being smart is what helps Lanesha survive the hurricane and flood. GREAT math teacher. GREAT neighbors and adults, and a respectful way of treating others. GREAT vocabulary.

heritage
synopsis
tragedy
suspension
exasperated
intervals
unfathomable

A very good story about love, loss, survival and rebirth. The book's message about the flood is: It doesn't matter where the flood comes from. Sometimes, the flood just comes.

Parent notes: illegitimacy, abandonment by extended family, some abuse of animals, some bullying, one death by gunshot, ghosts, voodoo, no politics

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gift of Children's Literature! August 10, 2010

By Angela of Color Me Purple

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes
I just completed Jewell Parker Rhodes' latest book--her first written for young
people. Its Title--Ninth Ward. Its Setting--New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
Its focus--Lanesha, a twelve year old born with a caul covering her head and
face, who is connected to the spiritual world and her Mama Ya Ya. Through a
child's eyes we watch a neighborhood in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans
experience the arrival of Hurricane Katrina, the surge of the Mississippi River as
the levees give way, the destruction of a rich vibrant community made up of
people who have so little, but share what they have with each other. This is a
story of love, courage and strength as the ancestors encourage two young
children to have faith in themselves if they want to survive. Jewell Parker
Rhodes says that she wanted to grow up enough to write her first book for young
people--she has more than made up for making us wait so long by penning this
magnificent story for youngsters and oldsters, one that I will share with many. A
MUST READ.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "How can it be mandatory if I don't have a way to go?" August 7, 2010

By Luan Gaines HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

In a novel for younger readers, Jewel Parker Rhodes tells the story of thirteen-year-old Lanesha, a girl who lives in New Orleans' Ninth Ward pre-Katrina with a grandmotherly lady she calls Mama Ya-Ya. The relationship between elderly woman and child, while not of blood, is one bound in spirit and love. With her roots in the old voodoo ways, Mama Ya-Ya combines a nurturing presence with the wisdom of her years; in fact, it was Mama Ya-Ya who delivered Lanesha when the girl's mother died in childbirth. As well as Mama Ya-Ya, it isn't uncommon for Lanesha to see ghosts, among them her mother, and others who wander the streets of New Orleans, a city with a particularly rich cultural history. As Katrina approaches, Mama Ya-Ya senses something more than a storm, though her weary soul cannot see clearly what is ahead. As the old lady dreams, Lanesha takes over, preparing for the hurricane, boarding windows, preparing food.

There is an almost allegorical sense of the old giving way to the new in this poignant tale, albeit with an uncertain future. An avid student who dreams of building bridges, Lanesha's curiosity is insatiable, but it is her compassion and bravery that will inspire young readers, the spiritual ties between generations and the capacity to entertain the extraordinary. The author clearly loves this city and its wealth of history and stories, however it may have been damaged by Katrina and its shameful aftermath. And she writes with the same fluid grace and turn of phrase that has distinguished her adult novels. Lanesha's world may have changed with Katrina's devastation, but she is truly a child of Mama Ya-Ya's heart, buoyed by her appetite to taste the world and her appreciation of others, real or imagined. Luan Gaines/2010.