On her thirteenth birthday, Reesie Boone finds herself stranded in the home of her elderly neighbor, Miss Martine, as Hurricane Katrina turns Reesie’s home, New Orleans, and her neighborhood, into a disaster zone. Will Reesie and Miss Martine escape the floods, and will they find Reesie’s family?

I’ve read couple of other middle grade fiction books set in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina:

Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere by Julie T. Lamana and
Zane and the Hurricane by Rodman Philbrick.

Honestly, none of the three stood out or seemed really special. Maybe I’m jaded. Reesie’s story is fine, and it does deal more with the aftermath of of the hurricane and the long process of recovery and finding a “new normal.” Nevertheless, I felt as if I’d read it all before.

However, that doesn’t mean that middle grade readers who are just now wanting to find out about Katrina and its effects in the lives of the people of NOLA would be as dulled to the subject as I am. Any of these three would do the job adequately, even if none of the three is what I would call memorable.

Maybe reading this nonfiction book about Memorial Medical Center and the events that happened there during Katrina was so disturbing that I was spoiled for anything else.