The Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Lanesha is twelve years old and able to see and communicate with ghosts. She lives in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, LA with Mama Ya-Ya who has the ability to predict the future. Mama Ya-Ya senses the hurricaine coming and when the city orders a mandatory evactuation of the city Mama Ya-Ya and Lanesha decide to ride it out because they don't have a car or much money. They prepare for Katrina and it's due to Mama Ya-Ya's warnings and Lanseha's determination to survive that drives the story. Lanesha was so beautifully written, she had no friends because of Mama Ya-Ya's abilities as well as her own. Her best friend was Mama Ya-Ya and she loved math. Even though we all know the outcome of Hurricaine Katrina, Rhodes did a wonderful job of making the apprehension and survivl strategies of the ordeal real, so it didn't come off as a predictable Katrina story.

Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers

Reese has been sentencesd to 18 months in a juvenile facility named Progress for breaking the law one to many times. He would like to be relased early for good behavior, but things just keep happening, others keep trying to kill his friend Toon, he's being accused as being part of a bigger crime that took place two years ago and he feels that the warden's at the facility don't care about him and his family life sucks, with the exception of his little sister. As usual Myer's way with words strikes a chord with his readers, even though Reese has made poor decisions to end up where he is, you really feel that he is trying, so much so that you start rooting for him. I have never read anything by Walter DEan Myer's that wasn't good and this book was no exception.