about the book
Zane Dupree doesn’t know much about his father’s side of the family, so in the summer of 2005, he and his dog Bandy visit Miss Trissy in New Orleans. Miss Trissy is his paternal great-grandmother.
Zane doesn’t have much time to learn anything from Miss Trissy, except that his father apparently ran away from home and that his uncle “got hissef killed.” Then Hurricane Katrina rushes in, and everyone is told to evacuate.
Just as the evacuation bus was about to take off, Bandy runs out. Zane takes off after him, all the way back to Miss Trissy’s house.
They are caught in the terrible wind and rain, and the rising waters force them higher inside Mis Trissy’s house, until even the attic is being flooded and an air vent is their only hope.
No, not their only hope! A girl named Malvina and her elderly guardian, Trudell Manning, a musician, come with their boat to save them. But now are they all just trapped together? Will they survive?
about the author
Rodman Philbrick, a self-taught writer, has published more than 35 books for both adults and young readers. You can find his work under the pen names W. R. Philbrick, Chris Jordan, and William R. Dantz. He writes detective stories, thrillers, and mysteries for adults. Until her death in 2012, he often collaborated with his journalist/author/editor wife, Lynn Harnett, on the young reader’s books.
Rodman was born in Boston but grew up in a small coastal town in New Hampshire, where his grandmother rented cabins to summer tourists.
He started writing short stories when he was in sixth grade but never told anyone. Writing wasn’t something the popular kids did, and Rodman wanted desperately to be popular. By eleventh grade, he had finished his first novel, but he had to write eight or ten more before one of his manuscripts was actually published.
To make a living while he wrote in secret, Rodman worked as a carpenter, boat builder, and longshoreman. Now a successful writer, he writes every morning and spends his afternoons enjoying his other passions…he is an avid fisherman and a voracious reader. Rodman splits his time between homes in Maine and the Florida Keys.
Sources:
Author website
Author biography: Wikipedia
Author video interview: AdLit
Book trailer: Zane and the Hurricane
Also by Rodman Philbrick
The Big Dark. Blue Sky. 2016.
The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg. Blue Sky. 2009.
The Young Man and the Sea. Blue Sky. 2004.
The Journal of Douglas Allen Deeds : The Donner Party Expedition, 1846 (My Name Is America). Scholastic. 2001.
The Last Book in the Universe. Blue Sky. 2000.
Freak the Mighty. Blue Sky. 1993.
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