Hurricane Child

i ordered the book to be “new” and got it used. the pages are stuck to each other and the book is sticky in the back. the cover also has dents all over it. I read the book summary for a class assignment and thought it would be a good read but how am i supposed to read a book that’s glued shut with some grey glitter on it?

It started getting boring after reading first few chapters.

The book was beautiful arrived in great condition felt proud giving as gift

If you want your child exposed to these things fine, BUT the back of book or synopsis should tell you what to expect. It is filled with adults that have NO morals. The poor child has no clue what love is and can't tell the difference from being sexual attracted to the same sex vs love of a friend. She has had so little guidance ,she turns to books on witchcraft to give her answers, no adults to ask. The adults also have no time for her. All I could see is trauma. Personal opinion is that this book shouldn't be for children. As for the author, shame on you for classifying black people this way, your portrait of black families disgusts me.

I'm middle aged but due to illness am no longer sharp enough to read books for grownups, so I read youth books. I had previously read 3 other Callender books: Felix, Epic and King, all very good, but I Felix was my favourite. This one, I had to force myself to get through it. Total dud.Spoilers ahead.It had a lot of red herrings, you might say, or just sideplots that never went anywhere. Like why make the mom bi then never mention it again? Why was our protagonist mistreated so badly by the teacher and students at this school, when the principal was so nice- why didn't she do her job and control the misbehavior of those under her? How was a butch unmarried woman, presumably gay, able to become head of a school in a community that's portrayed as homophobic? I was expecting the mom and pricipal's past together and their personal journeys to be elaborated on further after we got just enough info about them to be curious. But it never went anywhere.Same with the visions or ghosts or whatever they were. Just another red herring that ended up not mattering to the story. It made me worry the girl was mentally ill, but since many youth novels use dragons and such silliness, I was partly expecting the shadow people to be real. In the end, when the protagonist decides they are not menacing but perhaps guardian angels, it seems they were there as part of some sort of metaphor that went over my head, about choosing to see things beyond our understanding as positive so life will be less scary? Could have left the whole facet off of the story and been just as good or better. Would have allowed room to expand on the stories of the secondary characters.The use of dialect to portray the protagonist was nice, though it took a few pages to get used to. It helped give her a unique voice whereas all the characters in Callender's other books just expressed themselves in what I assume is the author's own speaking style. A cheap gimmick to make this protagonist unique I guess but nonetheless it was somewhat effective imo.My biggest complaint is that the whole story is driven by the protagonist's desperation to know what happened to cause her mom to ghost her, so when they finally reunite and there wasn't an adequate justification, it ruined the whole book. Oh sure, the point may have been that people often do make mistakes that have no good explanation, especially when under stress, and if they matter enough to you, you could consider cutting them slack for being imperfect as we are all imperfect too blah bah blah. But to write an entire book that's basically a mystery, then never really solve the mystery, nope, I'm just not into it. And it doesn't make sense for the characters either. If they were real people the dad would have given his daughter a vague gist of what went down, or even violated his ex's privacy and told the kid everything, rather than just go along with the mom's choice to make her absence as painful as possible for the kid. Just watch the kid crumbling and lashing out and clearly falling to pieces and still just ignore it as if it was nothing to do with him? I guess it's in character for someone so selfishly uninterested in his own family members. Yet he's not ever portrayed as the Bad Guy, despite his indifference and poor choices nearly destroying his wife and his kid. The kid doesn't hate him, his ex doesn't even seem to hate him, and them deciding to play nice with him is shown as a happy ending. Why? Seems the kid would be better off in foster care, or if the mom's now recovered enough to handle reminders of her past, she could take the kid. Why keep this useless guy in the picture at all? If you want us to like and forgive the guy, show us some examples of him being good for something. Or some hints at past traumas that could explain his behavior the way the mom's running off is justified by her pain.I'm sure that the irrational behavior of everyone in the book was not written out of incompetence but intentionally planned to demonstrate how irrationally people often do behave, perhaps to encourage more rational choices or to ask our patience with irl impulsivity and thoughtlessness, but bottom line is, I found it unpleasant and unenlightening. A bit like the infamous records of Yoko Ono... you make art that's chaotic and frustrating as some sort of statement, fine, no law against that, but the fact remains that most people prefer art that's enjoyable.All that said, I'm not condemning the author just this one work. Do give Felix Ever After a chance!Adding to my dissatisfaction, the copy I got (from amazon themselves) was badly printed and should have been shredded. Every eighth (iirc) page was almost unreadably pale.

I loved Hurricane Child. It was a perfect book for a rainy week end. I fell in love with Caroline from the first page on. That kid never stopped fighting for what she wanted and needed. There was just enough included about the "lady in black" to keep the reader's looking for more.It was a perfect book, and this is the first book by this author l have read, but I am looking forward to the next one. Thank you.

My son attends a private Catholic school, and one of his teachers assigned this book for summer reading. The book promotes LGBT relationships amongst kids. If that's your bag, then this book is ok for you. However, it's not ours, so we were upset that the teacher assigned this book. We contacted the principal and learned that the teacher did not review the book before assigning it. So just be aware of what the book is really about. It's not really about Hurricane Katrina as much as it is about promoting LGBT.Note that I do not know much about the author's writing, so you'll need to review that for yourself

"Water Island is supposed to be part of the United States Virgin Islands, but we were never sainted like Saint Thomas or Saint John or Saint Croix, and so everyone forgets we exist. People have forgotten about Water Island since the days when there were slaves. Since no one remembered Water Island was right there beside Saint Thomas, slaves escaped to Water Island to be free. They didn’t have to hide whenever a boat filled with white men passed by because those men never even looked their way." (p. 45)Caroline was born during a hurricane on a seemingly forgettable island. Because she is a hurricane child, legend has it that bad luck will follow her all of her days, and it seems to be true. Her mother left her without warning and Caroline is desperate to find her. Caroline takes us across the ocean with her every day she goes to school, shows us around Saint Thomas after meeting a new friend, and takes us into the country as she searches for her mother. Along the way, we learn aspects of island life, culture, and lore. Connected to the remoteness, isolation, and invisibility of Caroline’s place, readers are asked to grapple with what it means to be seen and understood. With elements of speculative fiction and mystery and representations of black queerness, Callender’s enchanting writing brings Caroline to life, engaging readers in an important consideration of place and identity.

Great story, but I give the book 1 star because it literally fell apart the first time I opened it. I thought maybe just the title page could be taped back in, then each page came out as I kept turning. I got it for my classroom library because I wanted to diversify the options for my students. I needed more LGBTQ friendly books. It is now being held together with a rubberband, and there is no way I will be able to loan it out to my 5th graders. Disappointing construction.

Beautifully written! I am doing this book as part of a middle school language arts curriculum, and it’s wonderful.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I loved the fact the book takes place on a Caribbean island and the characters are natives of the island. The writer trusts that middle grade students are going to be able to handle the some of the heavy topics. I won't give story away. It is refreshing to read a book that demonstrates some of the hard rawness of family, friends and loss. No rosy pictures painted in this story, but a good read.

This book follows twelve-year-old Caroline Murphy on her journey to find her mother and her place in the world. Caroline is an outsider at school and readers will recognize teachers they loved and those they loathed. They will also recognize the thrill of a best friend and the first stirrings of a crush. Caroline's spirit carries her through many difficult and dangerous times. that make this story fly by. A warm and entertaining story, anyone who loves a mystery or coming of age stories will love this book.

Too much. There was just too much going on in this story. I tried so hard to like it, I really did. But, I could not get around all the different mini plot directions that Kheryn Callender had going on in her story, Hurricane Child. The frame of the story had great potential, but the busy execution made this book a “just okay” read for me.Like I mentioned, this story had a lot going on, especially when it comes to the main character, Caroline Murphy. Caroline is twelve years old, and her life is chaotic. Her mom has just disappeared, her dad is constantly coming home drunk, the teachers at the school have it out for Caroline, the girls at her school bully her incessantly, she has fallen in love with the new girl, and oh… she sees spirits. Yikes… like I mentioned. Too much.You think all that Callendar built at the beginning of the story would be enough for young Caroline to take on., but it doesn't end there. More is added to the plot line. Caroline's dad has a secret love child and her mom is found raising another man's baby. Not to mention, the girls at school find out about Caroline's love for another girl, and they repeatedly torture her for the sin of loving someone of her same gender.Again, again, it is just way too much. This story is only a little over 200 pages long, there was no way all these plots could have been truly explored with such few pages.If Callender would have attached half as much as what she did to the poor character of Caroline, then maybe, just maybe, this story would have had a stronger direction. But the busyness of this story really took away from what the story, in my opinion, should have been about.I think the bulk of the story should have been focused on Caroline and her pursuit to find her mother. Everything else pilled on really just distracted from the strongest momentum that Hurricane Child showed some glimpses of.

Some spoilers here In this review...It’s a little heavy for tweens. Hits lots of heavy points from a girls mom leaving her after becoming suicidal/dad having a relationship with another woman/ school bullying/ a young girl having feelings for another girl.... the main character’s crush first responds to finding our her female friend has more than platonic feelings for her by getting upset and calling the whole thing disgusting and wrong. In the end, her friend changes her mind, and admits she too has mutual feelings for her friend. It also shows a beautiful friendship throughout the book as well.

Things I appreciated:*The differences in how Caroline, Kalinda, and "Carolinda" are treated*The relationship that develops between Caroline and Miss Joe*Caroline believing in spirits, demons, and the hiddeness of Water Island but still having doubts about what she sees*Marie telling Caroline that Caroline doesn't talk as much as she thinks*The Caroline/Kalinda storylineCW: anti-queer statements, internalized anti-queerness, bullying, mentions of suicide, feeling abandoned by a parent, corporal punishment at school, tropical cyclones, drowning.

Hurricane Child is a well-written novel filled with suspense - I could not put it down. The author led us through all her challenges as she grew up here in the Virgin Islands, sometimes a very lonely child reaching out to fellow students to be accepted, and to be cared for, even as she struggled with the disappearance of her mother. Finding that one friend, helped the main character to be accepted, and this contributed to her being a near-normal pre-teen. Yes, I rooted for this young girl throughout all her struggles, Eventually, she succeeded in finding her mother. A great read!

Loved this book! Rich setting, memorable characters, full of both heartbreak and hope. Great middle grade characters who are alternately more grown up than the adults around them and childish.

The author kept me totally involved . I certainly enjoyed the different twists and turns. At no time was I able to easily anticipate where she was heading. An excellent read. I would recommend it.

This book is fantastic. I highly recommend it. I'm 29 and I read it all in one day - I couldn't put it down.

As a fellow Virgin Islander, it’s extremely refreshing to read books set in your home island. This is a quick read with lots of deeper messages and nuance. Kudos to the author on this wonderful debut.