Ninth Ward

Rhodes, J.P. (2010). Ninth ward. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.

Coretta Scott King Book Award – Author Honor, 2011

Ninth Ward is the story of twelve-year old Lanesha who lives in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward with Mama Ya-Ya prior to Hurricane Katrina.  She was orphaned as an infant and because no one in her rich uptown family wanted her, her mother’s midwife Mama Ya-Ya takes her in and becomes her caretaker.  Throughout her life, Mama Ya-Ya teaches her to have courage and strength.  Like Mama Ya-Ya, Lanesha sees spirits, including her mother’s, and she is teased in school because of it.  Despite her difficulty finding friends, she is extremely smart and likes numbers and symbols and words and wishes to be an architect when she is older.  She eventually befriends her neighbor TaShon, and the two of them and Mama Ya-Ya have to work together to survive the hurricane and the storm surge that follows.  When Mama Ya-Ya passes away, the house is flooded to the attic, and Lanesha and TaShon have to find a way to safety.  In the end, they are rescued, and Lanesha feels like she has been born to a new life and knows that everything is going to be alright.  

Living in southeast Texas, books about hurricanes always hit home with me.  This one is no exception.  Jewell Parker Rhodes’ Ninth Ward is endearing and exciting at the same time.  Though fictional, it helps the reader imagine what it would be like to live through a massive hurricane like Katrina.  It also teaches children the importance of love and courage and strength, and it is nearly impossible not to relate to Lanesha’s feelings of abandonment and loneliness.