Zane and the Hurricane

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, 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. 

It was supposed to be a vacation, a chance to meet family in a city I’d barely heard of. And then disaster struck. The world turned upside down and inside out—and that was before the flood. 

I need to warn you right now, there’s some really gross stuff in this book, stuff so awful it made a dog hide his nose. And things so terrible I wanted to close my eyes. But we saw it all, me and Bandy. The good and the bad, the dark and the light. Acts of astonishing courage. Acts of cowardice and cruelty, of generosity and greed. Acts of terror and tragedy, tears and laughter.  

My name is Zane Dupree, and this is my story. 

Zane’s story focuses on the effects of Hurricane Katrina, but it is also a story about family. When Zane travels to meet his grandmother for the first time, he doesn’t think it’s important for him to learn about his father, who died before Zane was born. However, as his grandmother shares stories, Zane comes to realize that knowing your family history is important. When the hurricane separates Zane and his grandmother, Zane meets other people who talk about Zane’s father when he was a teenager. While Zane’s story highlights the importance of family and community connections, the hurricane overshadows this theme. 

While traveling away from the hurricane, Bandy jumps out of the car, and Zane follows him. This leaves Zane alone when the hurricane hits. Afterward, Zane is rescued by Tru, an African American man, and Malvina, a young Black girl. The three canoe through New Orleans’ wreckage and along the way, they face danger from a drug boss as well as the security for a rich area of town. These dangers reveal the discrimination and hardships that Black people faced during Hurricane Katrina. The story examines the disparities between the poor and the wealthy, as well as the differences between people of color and white individuals.   

Zane and the Hurricane lacks a cohesive story. Instead, Zane’s travels through New Orleans give quick flashes of how different people were affected by the destruction. However, each person has such short scenes that readers will be unable to connect with them. Likewise, when Zane discovers his father’s secret, the moment is anticlimactic because the father’s personality is never developed. The lack of character development and numerous dull moments make Zane and the Hurricane a story best suited for readers interested in Hurricane Katrina. Although the story is fictional, it incorporates many facts and ends with four pages of “interesting facts about New Orleans and the Great Flood.” Readers interested in the destructive nature of hurricanes can be swept away in the pages of Hurricane Rescue by Jennifer Li Shotz and Carrie and The Great Storm by Jessica Gunderson. 

Sexual Content  

• None

Violence  

• Zane never met his father before he died. Zane is upset that “he did something stupid like get himself run over by some old gumby before [he was] born.” 
• Tru, an African American man, and Malvina, a young Black girl, rescue Zane from a flooded house. They canoe to a rich part of town that isn’t flooded. Men with guns swarm them. “The guns swing in our direction, until all you can see is the black holes at the end of the barrels.” When Tru doesn’t get down fast enough, “one of the shotgun men plants a shiny black combat boot on his chest and shoves him to the ground.” 
• Malvina screams at the man and grabs him. “He pulls her off the way you’d flick at a bothersome bug, and hands her to me. I can feel her heart slamming in her chest, and the tightness of her anger.” 
• Before questioning Zane, the man with the gun “smiles an evil kind of smile, touches the end of the shotgun barrel to my chin, and says, very softly, ‘Bang. You lied.’” 
• Zane and Malvina are pushing the injured Tru on an office chair. They come to an overpass where police officers are telling everyone to turn back. “Malvina keeps going. . . with the dog following close behind. . . And then cops in armored vests swarm from behind one of the cars, taking aim. . . Malvina shoves the chair forward, as if she’s trying to ram through the barricade. . .” 
• Zane’s dog, Bandit or Bandy for short, jumps at “the men with guns as if he’s a big bad wolf instead of a twenty-pound mutt. A shotgun explodes. . . And then Bandy is slammed to the pavement like he’s been hit by a shovel, and he isn’t moving. Because they shot him, there on the bridge.” A vet takes the group, including Bandy, to her house. Everyone survives. 
• A woman who knew Zane’s father, Gerald, tells Zane a story. Gerald’s brother James “found a paper bag on the playground, and inside the paper bag was a gun. Stashed there by a drug dealer. . . James showed off the gun to his big brother, fooling around.” Gerald takes the gun and accidentally kills his brother, James. 
• Dylan, a “drug boss,” is “killed by one of the underage kids who worked for him selling drugs.” When Zane’s grandmother finds out, she says, “The wages of sin is when people do unta you wahat yoa did unta them.”

Drugs and Alcohol  

• Dylan, a known “drug boss,” tries to kidnap Malvina so she can sell drugs for him. Dylan says Malvina’s mom owes him. Tru says, “He done Malvina’s momma a few favors, if givin’ her drugs is a favor.” 
• Dylan wants to add Malvina to his crew. Dylan “own[s] a bunch of fourteen-year-old boys, dealing his dope on the corners.” 
• After Bandy is shot, a vet gives Bandy a sedative so she can clean his wounds. 
• The vet also gives Tru antibiotics. “The medicine is for large dogs, but she says it will work just as well on humans.” 

Language  

• Various characters rarely call others names, including fool, stupid, hellion, and jerk. 
• Several times, Zane calls himself names, including moron, crud bucket, rotten crud, and dumb-butt dipstick doodlebrain. 
• Bandy jumps out of the car, and Zane follows him into the path of the hurricane. Zane berates himself, thinking, “There’s no way to stop my brain from going over it again and again, every mistake, every stupid thing I’ve ever done or said.” His brain says, “Zane Dupree you are a fool, you are the dumbest human being on Planet Earth. . . [you] ran away to save your stupid dog.” 
• Zane’s grandmother uses “Lawd have mercy” and “Oh my Lawdy” as exclamations once. 

Supernatural 

• None 

Spiritual Content  

• When Zane meets his grandmother for the first time, she says, “The Good Lawd has given me a great gift. Thank you Lawrd! Praise be!” 
• When Zane asks his grandmother how old she is, she says, “I’m zactly older than dirt.” Then she tells Zane, “It’s bad luck to brag about her age because the Good Lawd might be listening and have cause to remember that she’s long past her sell-by date.” 
• The news says that a hurricane might be heading for New Orleans. Zane’s grandmother says, “We can’t know that, child. Nobody knows but the Lawrd, and He’s not sayin’. . . Here’s what we gone do. Tomorrow morning we go to church and see what da Lawd provide.” The next day, they go to New Mission Zion Baptist Church. 
• While at church, the pastor says the Lord’s Prayer and then he says, “I pray we will be in attendance next Sunday, and that the sun will be shining and that no harm will have come to us, or this ward, or our little church. . .” Then the congregation prays. The church scene is described over one page.  
• A young girl sings “Jesus loves me.” 
• Tru is injured and has a fever, but they can’t find help. A cop gives him a bottle of water and tells Zane and Malvina, “Might better pray.”