In the week before Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans, twelve-year-old Lanesha is attending school, running errands in her neighborhood, and starting to make a new friend in TaShon, a boy who lives nearby. Lanesha lives in the Ninth Ward with Mama Ya-Ya, the woman who’s raised her since birth, while the ghost of Lanesha’s mother is the silent third resident of their home. In this vivid work of realistic fiction the ability to sense things beyond the physical world is simply part of the fabric of Mama Ya-Ya’s and Lanesha’s lives. It’s as real as the rhythm of life in their neighborhood, a place where people do what they can for one another. But that rhythm is disrupted as the hurricane approaches and warnings come to evacuate. Lanesha and Mama Ya-Ya have no way out of the city, or even to the stadium where many others are taking shelter. They remain at home, eventually joined by TaShon. The ferocious winds and torrential rains are frightening, but the rising waters in the storm’s aftermath are a slow and quiet terror. When the attic in which the three take shelter begins filling with water, Lanesha discovers survival is more than a matter of strength and courage, but of faith as well. In the end, that means holding on, reaching out, and letting go in author Jewell Parker Rhodes’s memorable, exquisitely realized story that offers an affecting look at the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina through one child’s experience. (Ages 9–13)

From New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes comes a heartbreaking and uplifting tale of survival in the face of Hurricane Katrina.

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.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Boys and Towers Falling, Ninth Ward is a deeply emotional story about transformation and a celebration of resilience, friendship, and family--as only love can define it.