I Survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005

Lauren Tarshis's I Survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005 is a heart-in-mouth survival story for 9 year olds about a comic-mad boy who has to be his own superhero when his city floods.

What happens

Barry Tucker is eleven and lives in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. He and his best friend Jay have spent three weeks inventing a superhero called Akivo for a comic book contest.

Barry isn't much like Akivo. He's practised saying "Get off my property!" in the bathroom mirror, and he reckons he's about as fierce as a peanut butter cookie.

The person he'd love to say it to is Abe, an older boy from the neighbourhood who enjoys frightening him with a big dog called Cruz. Abe says Cruz is trained to kill.

Then the hurricane warnings get serious. The Tuckers set off in the car, but three-year-old Cleo is sick all over the back seat (and the front seat) and they have to turn round.

Back home, Dad picks up his trumpet and plays along with the wind until it sounds like a song. He's a jazz musician and nothing rattles him.

Barry wakes on the sofa to water pouring through the front door. Soon the family are in the attic, then out on the roof in the storm (Gramps kept an axe in the attic for forty years, just in case). Then a gust knocks Barry off and into the flood.

Out there on his own, the next voice he hears isn't a person's. It's Cruz, trapped and howling in what's left of Abe's house. What would your reader do?

It's frightening, but it's a very warm book too. The Tuckers are lovely company. Mum bakes when she's nervous, and Barry tells Cleo bedtime stories in which Akivo rescues Snow White.

This was a real flood, and plenty of parents will remember it from the news. The book doesn't hide how bad it was. Barry spends a long time alone, not knowing if his mum, dad and sister are alive. There's a snake in the water, the flood stings his skin, and people stranded on rooftops call out for help as a rescue boat goes past, one family with a baby.

If storms already worry your reader, or being apart from you does, this may be too close to home. A dog lover who wants a proper adventure with a big heart will probably adore it.

What to read next

For another eleven-year-old with wild weather on the way and a very good dog beside him, try I Survived the Joplin Tornado, 2011. Zeke comes to Dex's rescue right near the start. (Katrina is the third I Survived book, but there's no need to read them in order.)