Renee Watson’s picture book begins with four children happily playing on a street in a New Orleans neighborhood where folks say hello to each other, drink tea on the porch and warble gospel songs.
“A Place Where Hurricanes Happen” (Random House, 2010) frames the prelude to Katrina’s near-biblical devastation, beginning with the giddiness of innocence and friendship shared by Adrienne, Keesha, Michael and Tommy. Nature’s assault throws the youngsters’ lives into turmoil, but the redemptive powers of faith, fortitude and family keep them whole.
Watson visited New Orleans a year after the 2005 Hurricane Katrina and spoke to children who survived. “I’m a teaching artist working with young people coping with trauma,” the 32-year-old African American writer from New York said of the 40-page picture book illustrated by Shadra Strickland. Each of the four characters is a collage of the many personalities she’s met and whose lives she tried to pry open using the evocative imageries of poetry or drama. “This book is my way of honoring them.”
One of the heartbreaking passages has the boy Michael talk about holding on tight to his sister who is scared of the surging flood waters: “All I can see is more water rising. I look away and I squeeze Jasmine’s hand real tight because now I am scared too.”
Watson lets her characters speak their age. She does not get overly sentimental when describing the families’ struggle to reclaim what’s left of their homes and property. The character Adrienne thinks only of the immediate excitement of reuniting with her friends when she returns home: “Today, I get to play…Today, no one has to go home early. Today, we’ll sit on Granny’s porch and eat po’boy sandwiches. Today, we’ll play till the sun goes down.”
“A Place Where Hurricanes Happen” belongs to a short list of juvenile fiction intended to help young readers understand the magnitude of the tragedy that was Hurricane Katrina. Watson’s book, published in June, was quickly followed by Jewell Parker Rhodes’ “Ninth Ward,” about an orphaned girl who bravely rescues her 82-year-old caretaker from the flood.
Watson’s ability to distill death and destruction through the eyes of children makes her both a masterful narrator and a memory keeper for the young trauma victims with whom she spoke.
