Hello everyone! A couple weeks ago in LA we did a project called the Backpack project. What was it all about? Well, over summer break we read a book called Finding Someplace by Denise Lewis Patrick. It’s about a girl named Reesie who’s about to celebrate her birthday when Hurricane Katrina hits her hometown in Louisiana, where the hurricane hit in real life. She stays at her elderly neighbor’s house with her neighbor, her friend’s brother Andre, and his wife.

So first we wrote an essay about who we thought the hero of the book was. I chose to write about Andre:

I think Andre was the hero. First of all, he was willing to do anything to help the others survive, and he always put them first. For example, when the soldier said that they were only taking elderly, Andre lied and said Ms. Martine (the elderly neighbor) was Andre, his wife (Eritrea) and Reesie’s grandmother.

Andre was also kind. When Reesie said it was her birthday, he sang “Happy Birthday” for her.

He was also a good leader. When the guy with the boat came, he called out because everyone else was scared. He also made decisions.

Lastly, Andre was brave. He broke the hole in the roof to help everyone else, and when the water was flooding in he told everyone else to go first.

After we wrote that, we filled our backpack. What do I mean by that? Well in the book, Reesie had to pack her backpack full of important stuff last minute. So we did the same. We took a picture of a backpack and drew all the important things we would bring.  Here is mine.