Between Two Skies

Gr 7 Up—In August of 2005, Evangeline Riley is starting her junior year of high school in Bayou Perdu, LA. While many kids in her school talk about how they cannot wait to escape small-town life, Evangeline cannot imagine leaving her fairy tale—like surroundings. The daughter of a fisherman, Evangeline has inherited her father's passion for the sea. She feels most at home on the family's skiff, exploring the hidden treasures of the deep bayous. During one of her sojourns, Evangeline comes to the rescue of Tru, who has run himself aground. Although the teens are almost immediately smitten with each other, their budding relationship comes to a halt when Hurricane Katrina ravages the Gulf Coast. After Evangeline and her family evacuate, their entire town is pulled into the ocean. Tru and Evangeline do find each other again, but love is hard when one has no home. In the years that have passed since Hurricane Katrina, there have been many stories about the immediate devastation to New Orleans. This tale reminds readers that there were millions of people all over the gulf affected by this tragedy and that for many, the horror of the event was only beginning, not ending, when the skies cleared.