Student Writing: Jennie Gorden on City of Refuge

(Below is an essay by student Jennie Gorden, see photo, on City of Refuge by Tom Piazza. The book is presently being studied at SVDP-ALC.
-- Adrian)





My Views on City of Refuge and the
Teacher/Tutor Guide
By Jennie Gorden
St. Vincent de Paul - Adult Learning Center

I feel that City of Refuge, written by Mr. Tom Piazza, was an excellent book. His novel talked about Hurricane Katrina and two families, black and white, who were impacted in different ways. As I was reading the book, it became very interesting because looking back at "familiar words" and streets reminded me of when I was a teenager. "Familiar words" is a literacy tool from the Literacy Alliance of Greater New Orleans Teacher/Tutor Guide to help you learn about different topics from the book [Students select names and words from the book which are familiar and write about and discuss them.] City of Refuge talks about the shocking tale of the impact that Katrina had on New Orleans and the failure of response by the government.
Our class at St. Vincent de Paul – Adult Learning Center is studying the book and about the people’s state of mind who had to go through Katrina with their families. Some of the "familiar words" and streets that I recognize are Reynes Street (page 81) which is about the morning SJ went driving around looking for Wesley down Reynes to North Tonti past Forstall and decided to drive around 40 more minutes to see if anyone had seen Wesley. He was concerned about him because the storm was headed towards New Orleans.
No one had any idea NOLA East was going to flood and miles of houses would flood.
The storm had been so devastating that it truly crippled the city. When the levee breached at the 17th Street Canal, the city began to take on water from Lake Ponchartrain (page 165) All day Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday families were walking towards the Superdome and the Convention Center in large groups to get shelter. Then the evacuation started (page 382) Many of those without homes came from Houston, Little Rock, Memphis, and Atlanta back to New Orleans.
Literacy Skills are very important to learn because they teach you things that you do not know but are willing to learn. Some subjects are reading, writing, mathematics, and understanding the ability to discuss subjects. To have the ability to understand and discuss the book by Mr. Tom Piazza you must read it. I feel that Mr. Piazza wrote his book for his readers; he gives his voice to the unspoken Americans. Mr. Tom Piazza is using fictional characters, but it is a true story.