Finding Someplace - Softcover

Patrick, Denise Lewis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1250079829 ISBN 13: 9781250079824

Publisher: Square Fish, 2016

Synopsis

Reesie Boone just knows that thirteen is going to be her best year yet-this will be the year she makes her very first fashion design on her Ma Maw's sewing machine. She'll skip down the streets of New Orleans with her best friends, Ayanna and Orlando, and everyone will look at her in admiration.

But on Reesie's birthday, everything changes. Hurricane Katrina hits her city. Stranded at home alone, Reesie takes refuge with her elderly neighbor, Miss Martine. The waters rise. They escape in a boat. And soon Reesie is reunited with her family. But her journey back home has only begun.

Finding Someplace by Denise Lewis Patrick is a story of a family putting itself back together, and a young girl learning to find herself.

A Christy Ottaviano Book

About this title

About the Author:

Denise Lewis Patrick is the author of many books for children and young adults, including The Adventures of Midnight Son, the American Girl Cecile books, and A Matter of Souls, a young adult short story collection. She has worked in publishing as both a writer and an editor and teaches college courses as an adjunct professor of writing. She is pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing. Born in Natchitoches, Louisiana, she lives in New Jersey with her family.

From School Library Journal:

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. VERDICT A powerful read for middle grade readers already familiar with the hurricane or those learning about it for the first time.—Juliet Morefield, Multnomah County Library, OR

About this edition

• Publisher: Square Fish
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1250079829
• ISBN 13: 9781250079824
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224