Zane And The Hurricane

Zane And The Hurricane

Juvenile fiction
"I never thought a mutt like Bandit could get me in so much
trouble. Don't get me wrong, he's the best dog in the world, and what
happened wasn't his fault, even if it nearly got me killed. Bandit
didn't cause the hurricane, okay? And it wasn't his idea for us to go
all the way from our home in New Hampshire to the heat and smells of
New Orleans."
When I opened Rodman Philbrick's Zane And The Hurricane and read
this first paragraph of the jacket blurb, I could not put it back on
the shelf. As an animal lover and affecianado of well written
suspense stories, I was doubly hooked. Fortunately this book amply
lived up to the promise of these sentences that not only foreshadowed
the plot, but provided a fine intruduction to the voice of its
protagonist.
Zane enters his house to find his mother all red eyed. Someone
hasn't died. She's located a relative of his father who died before
he was born through the magic of the Internet. So he's scheduled to
travel with his dog to New Orleans to meet a great grandmother with a
strange name. Little does me know an unwelcome guest will arrive
shortly afterward: Hurricane Katrina.
A few days into his visit, Zane gets a disturbing call from his
mother. He and Miss Trissy are to get to the airport ASAP. She'll
arrange for them to join her in New Hampshire. Only flights get
cancelled. Miss Trissy's Pastor gives them seats in the church van
that is evacuating parishoners who have no other means of escape.
It's inching up a ramp when Bandy,
Zane's dog, spooked by dobermans in a nearby SUV, jumps out a window
into traffic...
...followed closely by Zane.
The two are in for the frights of a lifetime, struggling to
survive in a surreal world dominated by disaster.
On a personal note, although it's tempting to chalk Zane's action up
to youth, if it was my Joey who jumped out that window, I probably
would have chased the best cat in the world who is curled up on my lap
purring as I write this, even though I just went and turned 57.
A great big shout out goes out to all who take great risks to rescue
people and animals in disaster situations.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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