Sophie Washington: Hurricane

Another top-notch read from The Sophie Washington Book Series!

This is the third book I’ve read in The Sophie Washington Book Series, and this is the fourth book in the series that I’ve featured on my blog! So yes, I was more than thrilled to read and review this book – and it did not disappoint!

This book follows Sophie, now eleven, and her family in the beautiful suburbs of Houston, Texas. This book focuses mostly on Sophie’s family, friends, classmates, and trying to avoid a scary and dangerous hurricane!

We moved a lot when I was kid, but never to a state that had hurricanes. So, I wasn’t very familiar with the ins and outs of hurricanes from a kid’s perspective. However, I am very familiar with earthquakes and tornados. There was this one particular time in Aurora, Colorado, where a tornado had touched down just a couple blocks away from our apartment. I remember hearing the loud sirens screeching outside. I was nine-years-old and home alone. My mom was half hour away at work and she had called to tell me that she loved me and to get in the bathtub with the phone, radio, Gameboy, and flashlight. The complex didn’t have a storm shelter and we had learned the bathtub was the next best place to shelter. I was soooooo scared!!! And many of the roads were closed off so my mom wasn’t able to come home, so I had to wait it out by myself. I remember feeling the bathroom shaking and things falling off the counter. It was probably one of the scariest moments of my life. The tornado finally had gone back up after what seemed like forever to a nine-year-old, but I’m sure were mere minutes if that. Our apartment didn’t have any outside damage, but several of the houses on our street did. We only lived in Aurora nine months, and we wouldn’t have lasted any longer to be honest. After more tornados, neighborhood crime, gangs, and so much more, we were done with the area. But that was in the late 90’s! I’ve been back since, and the area has greatly improved – except, they still get tornados lol.

Facing a natural disaster is scary for ANYONE regardless of their age. Facing a natural disaster as a kid is probably one of the scariest things they could imagine, and if not handled right, could have serious consequences. That’s why I totally LOVED this book!!! The author brings facing something scary into a positive, but serious, honest, non-threatening light that teaches kids it’s okay to be scared, but also how they can help in those situations. Also, this book shows what hurricane victims and their families go through during those hard times.

I really like that this book takes real-life issues head on and allows the young reader to easily connect with the characters and the situations they get into at home and at school.

This book also delves into the old English Idiom, “don’t judge a book by its cover,” making first impressions, and social groups and cliques in school. Sophie finds herself making fast judgments about some of her classmates that end up proving she may have jumped too quickly to those assumptions. Sophie learns a valuable lesson that I think everyone has struggled with at least one time in their life – profiling. It’s hard not to do in today’s culture, but I think it’s a very important lesson that no matter how easy it is to judge someone as the class geek, the snobby cheerleader, the class clown, or such, there’s always more to that person’s story, and you’re only seeing one side of them. And while you’re judging them, they might be judging you, perhaps as miss goody two shoes, and I’m sure that doesn’t feel good. So to borrow from the Golden Rule, “treat others how you want to be treated.”

This book series is just filled with so many wonderful life lessons and morals and this particular book did not miss the mark!

The author continues to show her Houston and Texas roots by throwing in so many references throughout the book since the book does take place in the Houston Suburbs. I have been to Houston many times, and I have lived in several parts of Texas before. So, I really enjoy when I read a book from there that the real Texas is found in the pages – and it sure was!

I think the best part of this book being for middle graders, is that it’s a fun, cool, intriguing, suspenseful book for them! It’s not a dumbed down kid’s book and it’s not a book that a parent can be worried that their kid is reading. It’s a book that a kid will want to read, won’t be embarrassed to read in front of their friends or their parents. It’s the right kind of a book a kid should be reading and the right kind of book their parent will be glad they are reading!

This book is book five of the Sophie Washington Book Series. Although I have read other books in this series, this book can absolutely be read on its own as a standalone without any fear of getting lost or confused. However, I am really enjoying this book series, and would totally recommend the whole series!!

This book is “G” rated as there is no swearing, no violence, no adult situations, and no sexual content.

I would absolutely recommend this book for middle graders as I think they would love this book and the Sophie Washington Book Series!

This book is marketed towards middle grades and I totally agree! However, I might even go as far as to suggest this book for readers in third grade to seventh grade as they too would also easily enjoy this book and book series as well!

**Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book and have voluntarily provided an honest, and unbiased review in accordance with FTC regulations.**