When I went to New Orleans to volunteer two years post-Katrina the Ninth Ward still didn't have many working traffic lights and some of the kids I worked with still had not been placed in a charter school.
I promised a ten year old girl I would write a book for her age group--and I did, and it's set in
a New Orleans disaster.
It's called Shine, and it's available here on SMASHWORDS, also for free, and I would love to get it in the schools. Alternate name is: IN CASE OF EMERGENCY. I can't say my book's the book, but it would be great if we had SOME books dealing with disaster for mid-grade readers. ANd def some awareness of what happened in New Orleans as well as the aftermath.
As that little girl is now twenty(!!!) she is probably too old for young adult book set in New Orleans, but she was only 15 when I wrote INVISIBLE SAINTS (and Shine) in my home in Phoenicia.
Literally a week after I finished writing the books Hurricane Irene struck, I lost my house, and it took
until now to get back on my feet, sit back and say--ah, I remember those books. Time to share them.
SAINTS is the sequel to Johnny Voodoo (an American Library Association Best Book)
and I have quite a few adult fans of that book!
Put it next to the dystopian and blood-filled books of today and it is probably very innocent--
but I wanted something to get in the kids hands that had no curses or graphic scenes. Suitable for school libraries. Available for free. It's the least I could do. Some people leave their hearts in San Francisco, I definitely left a chunk of mine in New Orleans, particularly the Ninth Ward.
If you know a young reader who might enjoy either book, or a teacher who wants this in the schools, pass this on!
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