Name: Storm Blown
ISBN: 9780525645962

Nick Courage

In San Juan, Puerto Rico, Alejandro worries about his great-uncle while helping guests at a resort, and in New Orleans, Emily worries about her sick brother as a major hurricane rages, changing both their lives forever.

Storm Blown

Jessica Nottingham

Where was a book like this when I was a middle grade reader because, wow, this was an adventure and a half! Natural disasters have always fascinated me. I think it was that if I knew more about them, they were less scary. Or, well, maybe the same amount of scary but I at least felt informed. Either way, I would have loved reading Storm Blown as a young reader. As it stands, I loved it a whole lot as an adult reader as well.

Nick Courage pits a whole cast of characters against the might of Megastorm Valerie. I could only watch in mixed parts horror and awe as the storm raged, and lives were put in the way of it. I loved how Courage doesn't just show how storms of this magnitude affect people and their cities, but also how they affect animals in their wake as well. It was also so refreshing to see people making realistic decisions because, as we all well know, people don't always evacuate when they're told to. Those decisions, and the consequences that came along with them, were half of the draw of this book. It's not hard to love characters when they feel like real people that you'd honestly be worried about.

As for the plot, well it flies by so quickly that there isn't time to blink. Courage manages to ratchet up the tension, without making things too scary for the younger set of readers that might pick up this book. That's not to say that there aren't times were things feel a bit dire. The end of this book had me so tense that I thought I might fall of the bus seat I was sitting on. However there's always a little inkling of hope. Just enough to keep you rooting for the character, person or animal, and hope that they come through everything okay. I teared up at the ending of this book y'all, and I make no apologies for it.

The science of storms is well mapped out in this book, for sure. If you've ever been interested at all in how megastorms develop, or the type of damage that they can cause, this is absolutely a story that you'll love. It's nice to be reminded that the majesty of nature contains things that are infinitely beautiful, and also absolutely terrifying. It's that balance between the two that makes living on our planet such an amazing experience.

Read this! Read it with your young reader and discuss it, read it by yourself, or read it with a book group. Trust me, you won't be sorry. This story is exciting, and also timely I think. As our climate changes, and storms like this become more normal, I think they need this kind of discussion. I honestly hope to see more from Nick Courage very soon.

Storm Blown

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