Twelve-year-old Tyrone loves his three-legged dog Buddy deeply and agonizes when Buddy must stay behind as the family evacuates before Hurricane Katrina. Later, while he and his father rebuild their New Orleans home, Tyrone fights to locate and bring Buddy home. Setting acts as a character in this emotional book, showing a strong, tight-knit community that is uniquely New Orleanian.

Twelve-year-old Li'l T offers an absorbing first-person account of a poor, tightly knit, multigenerational family's experience in Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, focused through the lens of Li'l T's relationship with a special dog named Buddy. Unlike other titles that deal with Katrina, this one eases up to the big event, enabling readers to establish a strong connection with the characters by slowly revealing how Li'l T and Buddy met and how Li'l T helped Buddy recover from the amputation of one of his legs. When the epic storm comes into the picture, readers find themselves as heartbroken as Li'l T when the family must leave Buddy behind in the evacuation. Li'l T struggles mightily during the family's temporary stay in Mississippi, suffering the loss of his dog, the family home and, finally, his beloved and now disconsolate grandfather. When the family moves back to New Orleans, Li'l T learns that he just might be able to get Buddy back from the family in California who has adopted him. The scenes involving the neighborhood criminal element and some final plot twists seem a little contrived, but Li'l T's voice and love for Buddy feel authentic, and those elements are enough to carry the story. A touching tale of hope, of holding on when you can, and of letting go when it's the right thing to do. (Fiction. 9-12)

Gr 3-5-Bustard describes Holly's early life, his family's fascination with music, and his path to becoming a recording star. Information on his musical influences, his early bands, and the creation of the Crickets and their success is included. This lively work is written in a folksy vernacular, with plenty of yeehaws, whoo-de-doos, and yeeee-doggies thrown in with colloquial expressions like "knee-high to an armadillo" and "Buddy stuck to that guitar like white on rice." While the enthusiastic text is very casual, a factual afterword presents more details about Holly's life and career. Attractive watercolors contribute to the down-home atmosphere. Well done, but of limited interest to most kids.-Jeffrey A. French, Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library, Willowick, OH Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.