Excellent historical details that helps young people feel like they were there. Well-researched and includes a historical note with photographs, suggestions for further reading, and the sources the author used while delving into the Hurricane and its aftermath.

{My thoughts} – Clare is a sweet girl that is living in New Orleans. At the time hurricane Katrina hits her mother and brother are in Houston. Her father, her Nana and herself or still home. Her father talks with her mother nightly and when the mayor calls for a mandatory evacuation her father goes out in search of gas so they can head to Houston.

He gives Clare specific instruction to pack a bag and get her Nana ready. She goes about doing that while her father is gone. She ends up having to do much more because her father doesn’t make it back. She is however, greeted with Ranger who starts to look out for her and her Nana.

There are many situations in which she could have been hurt. However, Ranger keeps her safe and helps to guide her in the right directions. A lot takes place in the span of a day or two and with Ranger by her side Clare is able to handle things at a much more adult level.

It did make me sad to read about all the stuff she’d went through. However, in the end it helped her to get where she was going and showed her tremendous amount of strength in a time of crisis.

I look forward to reading more books in this series in the future.

*Battle of the Books 22-23*
I thought it was good for an elementary level book. It was just a lot of constant action, but in a book that short I understand. It did a good job of showing how things affected both Clare and Ranger.

I think this one is my favorite in the series!

This disaster survival story is incredibly gripping, and I appreciate how the author represented Clare's courage and tenacity while also being realistic about her physical limitations as a young girl. She isn't able to hack through the roof with her dad's ax, for example, but her efforts show immense inner strength, and her challenges are all the more suspenseful because the author doesn't give her unrealistic, easy ways out.

I also appreciate how the author wove in her characters' Christian faith. There isn't a spiritual message to the story, but Clare and her grandma often exclaim things like, "Oh, Lord!" in a religious sense, and Clare repeatedly prays throughout her struggles. The series as a whole is secular, but this volume respectfully portrays the faith of many African Americans affected by Hurricane Katrina.

This chapter book honors the victims, survivors, and rescuers involved in Katrina without sanitizing the horror of the storm or the ways that racism and classism affected recovery efforts. The historical note in the back shares a lot more detail about the storm and aftermath, shares photos, and explains which specific elements of the story the author created based on her research and interviews.

Although the concept of a time-traveling rescue dog seems gimmicky, I have been very impressed with this series, and the author portrays Ranger in a realistic way. He truly seems like a dog, and the author put a lot of effort into thinking through how an animal would react in many of these situations, especially given that the dog knows even less about what is happening than the child he's helping. It's easy and enjoyable to suspend disbelief, and this series is so thoughtful and well-researched that it can appeal to teenagers and adults as well.

Tour de force.

I have questions about Ranger's origin story and the mechanism of time travel that weren't answered here, but that's on me for starting with Book 8.