Finding Someplace

Gr 4–6—Reesie Boone's been looking forward to her 13th birthday for a long time. As her big day approaches, people are focused on a hurricane warning, and everyone's leaving New Orleans. Reesie's family is staying put despite evacuation warnings; her father is a policeman and can't miss work. Hurricane Katrina hits while Reesie is at the neighbor's house picking up her birthday cake. Rising water forces everyone in the house up to the attic, where they chop a hole through the roof and are picked up by a rescue boat. That's just the beginning of Reesie's trouble. Her mother can't forgive her father for putting his job before his family, and takes Reesie back to her hometown in New Jersey, where she must process the trauma she's gone through as well as the loss of her home and everything she owns, and living apart from her father. Patrick does an superb job conveying the way Hurricane Katrina impacted families in New Orleans. Though important lessons can be learned from the book, the narrative allows readers to discover them organically. The pacing of the book mirrors the build up of the storm, starting out slowly, and picking up momentum. The nearly yearlong span helps readers understand that traumatic experiences take time to process. Patrick excels at creating believable, multigenerational communities. Main and secondary characters are profoundly impacted by their experiences during the hurricane. Reesie's character intentionally evolves from a protected, fairly self-involved young teen to a complex character recovering from depression and shock. Though Reesie lives through a national disaster, something most readers will not have experienced, her voice and concerns are authentic and relatable.