9th Ward

 

Author: Jewell Parker Rhodes

Title: 9th Ward

Genre: Historical Fiction

Bibliographic Data in MLA format: Rhodes, Jewell Parker. Ninth Ward. Little, Brown and Co., 2012.

Recommended Grade Level(s): 8-9th

Number of Pages: 218

*Brief, concise plot description (no more than one paragraph): 

This story is about a young girl named Lanesha who lives with her elderly grandmother in the 9th Ward of Louisiana. As they come from a poor neighborhood and do not have the means to evacuate, they have to stay in their home as Hurricane Katrina approaches. The story outlines their fears and phases throughout the storm where they have to survive on their own as the horrors of this natural disaster take over the only place Lanesha has ever known. 

Possible Teaching Concerns (may refer back to the text(s) used in class): 

This book is fairly easy to read, as it is written from the perspective of a young girl and reads like her mind would think. The only real concern I could think of would be the fear of the storm, which is aggressive and does a lot of damage and causes many deaths. It is a very tragic natural disaster, so telling the history of it along with the text is saddening. You could also teach about the race and class disparity and how that changed the damage levels. 

Personal Reaction to/and/or Evaluation of novel: 

I thought this novel was a good way to lessen the tragedy of the hurricane while still conveying how harmful it was. While the novel did include the stress and fear surrounding the storm, it was through a child's eyes, so the weight was not as heavy as it would have been had it been an adult. I think this is a great text to use when talking about natural disasters and would be a good introduction to race and class disparity and the dangers of it. 

Canonical work with which to juxtapose this novel & a brief (one paragraph) description of the rationale to connect the 2 works: 

I would compare this novel to the canon work Their Eyes Were Watching God because there is also a hurricane in that novel that causes havoc upon a poorer Black community. I can tie these two works together to demonstrate how lower-income areas are impacted differently during natural disasters and start a discussion about why that may be, if it is right, and what are possible ways to fix it.