Hurricane Song by Paul Volponi

Paul Volponi’s novel Hurricane Song gives people an insight to the pain that people faced during Hurricane Katrina.  Miles, Pop, Fess, and Uncle Roy are in the Super Dome waiting out Hurricane Katrina.  The characters face many challenges throughout the story, like gangs, not having enough to eat or drink, unsanitary bathrooms, and an overall bad situation.  Throughout the book we can see Pop and Miles bonding over the hardships of Hurricane Katrina.  At first Miles and Pop have a rough unloving relationship, but as the story progresses Miles and Pop are forced to become a team if they want to survive. 

            At the beginning of the book Pop and Miles don’t understand each other.  Pop is overly passionate about his music and Miles about football.  Miles doesn’t think that Pop cares about him and feels like he always comes second to Pop’s music.  Pop tries to connect Miles to music by giving him a drum for his birthday. This only makes things worse because Miles wanted football equipment and now Miles thinks Pop wasn’t listening to him.  In the Super Dome during Hurricane Katrina, one of the gangs starts a fire.  When everyone sees the fire heading towards the section where Miles and his family were staying, they start to run.  Pop grabs Miles as well as his trumpet.  This shows the beginning of Miles coming before Pop’s music. Instead of just grabbing his horn he also grabs his son because his son is also important to him.  After Miles and Pop escape the horrors of the Super Dome, they get into a fight with some other men out on the street.  One of the guys gets on top of Miles and starts to strangle him.  When this happens Pop grabs his trumpet, his most prized possession, and hits the guy in the head to protect his son.  In the process of saving Miles Pop breaks his horn.  When Miles notices and asks Pop about it, Pop says, “I just couldn’t lose you Miles, not for anything.”  This shows how Mile and Pop bond over the challenges of Hurricane Katrina and become a team.

            The idea of strengthening through challenges connects to teenagers because teens usually don’t agree with their parents, but when faced with challenges, teenagers can turn to parents or older responsible people in their lives for guidance and advice.  Miles is faced with many challenges during Hurricane Katrina and relies on his father for help and mentoring.  Throughout the challenges of Hurricane Katrina, Miles and Pop form a strong, life-long bond.  Normal every day teenagers can also form bonds with their parents or parental figures by asking for advice, help and mentoring and turning to their parents when faced with challenges.  People bond when they have to go through tough times together or when they rely on other people for help. This shows how this book directly connects to teens.