Terry Trueman ✓ 0 Free read
Trueman, Terry Hurricane, 144 p. HarperCollins, 2008. Language - PG.
Back in 1998, a killer hurricane struck the country of Honduras and wreaked havoc up and down the coast and further inland than the people have ever seen. José and his family live in a tiny village and disaster is about the strike. How many people in their village will be alive by morning and how will they be able to survive the next few days, let alone rebuild.
As poignant as José's plight is, I can only hope that America kids will respond to his world, even if it is so different from what they know. There are a handful of swears, but it all fits together. This would be a good read-aloud option if you need something short. I especially liked the speedy response from the Honduran government - it's a nice contrast to the after math of Hurricane Katrina.
EL, MS - OPTIONAL. Cindy, Library-Teacher.
http://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2008/... 006000018X A good book for middle schoolers about Hurricane Mitch that hit Honduras in the late 90’s. It is the story of a family, whose entire neighborhood was wiped out. It tells of how they survived and how they overcame things like a lack of water, open sewers, and sickness, while part of their family is missing. A good story. 006000018X Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com
With HURRICANE, author Terry Trueman brings to life in vivid detail the almost complete devastation of 1998's Hurricane Mitch on Honduras.
In the tiny village of La Rupa, there are only a handful of homes. One of those, at one end of town, is the house of Jose and his family: his mother and father, older brother and sister Victor and Ruby, and younger siblings Maria, Angela, and Juan. There is also their dog, Berti, who can sometimes be persuaded to do more than lie around in the sun.
La Rupa is the type of place where everyone knows one another; there is no way to avoid it, since the village is so small. Jose, who attends school at the bilingual International School in nearby San Pedro Sula, is pretty much the only person in the town who can speak both Spanish and English fluently.
In September 1998, La Rupa literally comes to a standstill when Hurricane Mitch destroys the town. After a deadly mudslide, the fifty-plus population of La Rupa is chillingly reduced to only a little over twenty. And Jose's father, brother Victor, and sister Ruby are missing, having been on the road traveling when the Hurricane hit.
In this vivid and fast-paced narrative, Mr. Trueman takes us through the days immediately following Mitch's destruction. As a lack of food and water begins to haunt the survivors, Jose is part of a group who must search the nearby trucha for supplies. And when little Juan falls ill, it is again up to the teenage Jose to venture out into the mud and muck to attempt to make his way to San Pedro Sula to find help.
HURRICANE is a vivid, fast-moving story that even younger readers will find themselves immersed in, as they struggle right along with Jose in learning to survive with next to nothing. The emotions he feels, as he worries about his family's fate, both those missing and still at home, will grip readers of all ages.
The author's note at the end of the book states that more than 5,000 people were initially killed in Honduras during the Hurricane. In the months that followed, bodies of the more than 8,000 missing individuals were also found. Even now, in 2008, the clean-up and recovery period in Honduras is still ongoing. This is one book that brings to life a plight of many that most of us never even knew about. 006000018X I read this book for an Around the World Reading Challenge.
Hurricane is a story about Hurricane Mitch and it's devastation told from the POV of a Honduran boy, Jose. When they first hear of the Hurricane coming, Jose's family doesn't think very much of it because their village, La Rupa, never gets hit badly during storms. However, that all changes with Hurricane Mitch. The storm creates a mudslide which wipes out all but 2 houses in the village of La Rupa, one of them Jose's. To make matters worse, Jose's father, brother, sister, and dog Berti have been missing since before the storm even began. This leaves 12-year-old Jose as the oldest boy in his house and he must take on the responsibility of caring for his pueblo, finding food, getting water, and keeping everyone healthy.
This book really resonated with me. I have lived in Central Florida all my life and I'm no stranger to hurricanes and how devastating they can be. I can remember in 2004, 4 different hurricanes directly impacted my home in the span of 6 weeks: Hurricane Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne. Much like Jose, I was only a child when these Hurricanes devastated my home. I can remember my mother putting all our mattresses in our hallway because it was the safest spot in our house that we could sleep in. I remember going to stay in another house because we knew our home wouldn't be safe enough for the next hurricane. I remember not having power during the storm and my father cooked a god awful pizza on a gas burner. When we came home, a giant oak tree had fallen on our house, denting in the ceiling and making it practically impossible to get inside. Much like in Jose's story, we had to come together with our neighbors to clear the roads with chainsaws and to get the tree off our house. Hurricanes are extremely humbling and unpredictable. The lingering effects of them can go on for years. You never realize how much you rely on electricity and water until you don't have them for weeks, sometimes months.
I feel like Terry Trueman did a great job portraying these aspects of what it is like to deal with natural disasters and the aftermath that follows. This was a very sad story but it also radiated hope. After reading this book, it made me realize even further how lucky we are in the United States when it comes to dealing with natural disasters. We have many resources that are there to help us and rebuilding is always an option. For people in countries like Honduras, Haiti, and Puerto Rico they aren't as lucky. As an adult, it makes me feel all the more inspired to donate to programs that do help with Natural Disaster Relief because ultimately the strongest resource we have is people. 006000018X Quote
There is something worse than gone, and that is not knowing, maybe never knowing where your loved ones are.
What could be worse than gone?
Never knowing.
My Review
This is a young adult novel, or possibly for even younger readers, tween age. Hurricane Mitch was a natural disaster in Honduras and other areas of Central America in 1998. While this novel is fiction the hurricane and its effects were very real. There is a very powerful message behind this novel as it helps to allow readers to understand the physical and mental after effects of natural disasters.
This is a short novel, which has some very powerful moments which are brought to life with the good writing, bringing the reader into the novel and makes you feel like you are in the small village living among the community, the main protagonist is 13 year old Jose who lives with his family who suddenly has to grow up really fast and take on many tasks that most 13 year olds do not experience in their lives, but there is also a huge sense of community, loss and sadness. This is not a happy novel, but at least there is not a sad ending as things work out fine for Jose and his family.
As this is such a short novel it is fast paced, with plenty of emotion and things happening, some tense moments, sad moments and at the end, happy moments even though the future is uncertain.
I can recommend this book to younger readers interested in knowing the after effects of natural disasters.
I am giving this book 4 stars. The next country we are visiting is Sweden. See you in the next country.
006000018X
This story takes place in Honduras during Hurricane Mitch, a category 5 hurricane that wreaked havoc throughout the Caribbean in 1998. Jose lives with his family in a small (10 families) inland village. The hurricane strikes while Jose's father, brother Victor, and sister Ruby, are away. A mudslide wipes out all the houses in the village except for Jose's and another. Jose, a teenager, finds himself having to be the man even though he doesn't feel ready for the role, as he helps with rescue efforts and organizes the search for food and water. Trueman vividly portrays, on a village scale, what happened all over Honduras at that time. Significantly, the mudslides probably would not have occurred if the forest in the hills above the village hadn't been thinned by logging. What I don't understand is why they didn't have warning of the hurricane, so that they could board up their windows, save water and food, and other preparations. Jose's sister had a radio, and at least one other villager had a television set. The government must have known, and I would have thought they'd have sent out warnings via all the media. Did people really not know, or was this a detail overlooked by Trueman? Nonetheless, this was a gripping story of survival and a heartwarming coming-of-age story. Recommended! 006000018X In the book Hurricane by Terry Trueman is a fictional book. When I first looked at the cover of the book, I thought that this looked like a really good book. It turns out that once I have read it that it is a very good book. I really liked the part on Jose was trying to help his little brother when he was sick after the whole hurricane had went down and the town was all damaged and wrecked. Jose was trying to go find the nearest doctor in another town 13 miles away from his hometown, La Rupa, and was trying to find people to help his town. I liked this part because Jose was doing his best to find help for his town that really needed help in this tough time. Jose didn't know where his brother, dad, or sister was and he was trying to find help because he knew that is what his brother and dad would do. I also liked the part when Jose was reunited with his whole family and the story that his dad told him about when they were stuck in the hurricane. I thought that his dad's story was pretty cool because his dad told me about what had happened and all of the other things that had went down in the hurricane. I really like this book and I would recommend this book to anyone that would like to read about natural disasters. The author has a good way of explaining everything to the reader. 006000018X Poor Jose and his family go through a major ordeal during and after Hurricane Mitch hits Honduras. The family is fictional, but the story was repeated over and over throughout Honduras. Jose is barely a teenager, but he is forced to grow up quickly and be the man of the family in this time of crisis. He grows and changes and it's beautiful how he changes and steps up. When another character comes to the village and asks where it went, he knows the answer is We are the pueblo. That is a lovely sentiment. As long as the people of the town are alive, then the town is alive. :) 006000018X May 2018
I read this book for the first time with a group of students this May, a group that included several VERY reluctant readers. Everyone read the whole book. And they LOVED IT! (My two most reluctant readers even finished it before the due date!) They loved that the action started right at the beginning. They loved that the problems and tension kept mounting exponentially throughout the book. They loved that the chapters (and the book) were short. They loved that the book was brutally honest about what life is like in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane.
This is a book I will definitely read again with students - either as a book club or as part of a larger unit on survival/natural disasters! It's just great!
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July 2016
I really enjoyed this book. I am really coming to enjoy and appreciate novelized-nonfiction - does that make sense? Is it a thing? Books like A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story and Never Fall Down - books that place a fictional character within the world of a real event.
This book is short enough that it could be read by a class as part of a larger unit or as a fictional pairing with a nonfiction work like Bodies From the Ash: Life and Death in Ancient Pompeii (Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12 or a YA book about Hurricane Katrina (if anyone knows of a good nonfiction work about Hurricane Katrina, I'd love to hear about it!). 006000018X I am going to use this as my read aloud for our weather unit. Could also be used as mentor text for personal narrative. Tells the story of a 13 year-old boy from a village in Honduras that gets wiped out by Hurricane Mitch. Deals a lot with the aftermath of the hurricane such as finding food and water, death of neighbors and loved ones, broken sewers, and UN doctors. 006000018X
The powerful story of a boy's fear and courage in the face of a force of nature too huge to even imagine.
Based on Hurricane Mitch's devastation of Honduras in 1998, Terry Trueman's acclaimed Hurricane is a gripping, realistic story told from the perspective of a hurricane survivor.
After hours of cowering in the dark with no lights, no warmth, and the terrible noises of the rain and wind pounding on the walls, José walks out his front door and steps into a nightmare. Everything is gone. Everything except for the desperate courage of those who survived that terrifying night.
But his nightmare has only begun as he and the few who are left in his small village dig for survivors, search for food and water, and try to start pulling their lives back together. Hurricane