Nowhere Better Than Here

Juvenile fiction 

     Shut your eyes a moment and picture a climate refugee.  I'm betting you're envisioning a person of color from a global south nation most of us couldn't locate on a map.  Sarah Guillory's Nowhere Better Than Here should serve as a much needed wake up call.  It shows that environmental destruction is also a lot closer to home than we'd like to believe.

     "And you want to visit Boutin.  We have live oak trees that are older than the state itself.  Most of them are draped with Spanish moss, which is like nature's version of lace.  Sunsets over the marsh set the sky on fire and turn the water a really pretty shade of pink."

     Jillian (13) can't imagine living any place other than her small coastal Louisiana town.  Her parents and grandparents went through its public schools.  She loves fishing and shrimping and sees her future in out of doors work.  In contrast school, with its mandate to stay inside makes "my head hurt and my skin crawl."

     Change, however, is on the way.  As the narrative opens school is canceled for a day and a half due to rain.  Nothing especially alarming in that.  Rising water is such a regular event houses are built on stilts.  

     But this time it's different.  Jillian and her friends aren't returning to their school.  They're being bussed to the school in the next town over.  

     "Carolton was forty minutes away.  I didn't know anyone there.  And I'd seen their school.  It was a lot bigger than ours.  Like, I'd-get-lost-on-my-way-to-class big."

     In the meantime Jillian has made a startling discovery.  While asking some long term residents about old photographs she's learned that Boutin used to be twice as big.  A lot of it has been submerged by the ocean.

     There's talk about not replacing bridges that were washed away including the one to the Boutin schools.  Then the school arrangement is made permanent.  It seems to Jillian that the adults have given up on saving Boutin and all it stood for.

     "As people moved on, the culture would die.  It had shrunk considerably over the years, but as families moved and stopped living off the land, stopped fishing and shrimping, stopped blessing the boats and telling stories and sharing food, their children and then their children would grow further away from this life.  They'd adopt the life of Applebee's and the Gap, a life that looked the same no matter where you lived it."

     But she's not about to let it this happen if there's anything she can do about it.  

On a purrrsonal note, yesterday I had an incredible meeting with Jasmine who is a member of the Upward Bound full time staff.  I described my plans for the clothes room transformation and a 🎀 cutting next semester.  Totally green lighted.  She's also talking about restarting Friends of Upward Bound and the newsletter.  Those would be great ways I can continue to contribute after I 🎓 .  Thank goodness I don't have to work dining!  Also thank goodness I didn't get the field experience I was hoping for!  I'm plenty busy as it is.  And so far this semester I've kept up with my inside biking and cooking suppers for us both or for Eugene solo on my late 🌙 nights.  (Jules)

Yes, thank goodness!  She'd be away even more if she had to do all that.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to Jasmine and the rest of the Upward Bound crew.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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