Did you miss this one? “Sugarcane Academy: How a New Orleans Teacher and His Storm-Struck Sudents Created a School to Remember,” by Michael Tisserand

When a journalist and his family are displaced by Hurricane Katrina, and evacuate to a friends’ home in New Iberia, they soon realize that schools will not be ready and functioning for their children by September.

Michael Tisserand, a journalist, and his family met with their friends and contacted everyone’s favorite teacher from the old neighborhood and asked him if he would be willing to set up a classroom for a group of children. They find a storefront space and Sugarcane Academy (a name voted on by the kids) is formed.

With no school supplies or books, they began to learn by processing each child’s story born of the devastating experiences they had just been through. We begin to see, through the eyes of the families, that this is a school with a powerful reason for being, and it begins to grow. The group eventually moves back to New Orleans, but after some time, a few of the students are lost as families decide to move on to resettle in other parts of the country.

This is a story of a courageous group of folks on a mission of healing. Enjoy a positive and emotional book filled with real life heroes.

Merry Titus is a King County Library System employee at Covington Library.