Devil Storm

by Theresa Nelson

Overview

"The great hurricane that devastated Galveston in 1900 is the centerpiece of [this] tightly knit novel. The writing is powerful. A fine work, integrating nature with character." --The Horn Book, starred review

"Nelson's strong sense of place, poetic style and inspired characterization make this far more than just an enthralling adventure." --Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781504040716
Publisher:	Open Road Integrated Media LLC
Publication date:	02/07/2017
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

A native of Beaumont, Texas, Theresa Nelson is the award-winning author of eight novels for young readers: The 25¢ Miracle, Devil Storm, And One for All, The Beggars’ Ride, Earthshine, The Empress of Elsewhere, Ruby Electric, and The Year We Sailed the Sun. She and her husband, actor Kevin Cooney, have lived in Los Angeles since 1991. They are the parents of three grown sons.
 
Visit Theresa at www.TheresaNelson.net.
 

Editorial Reviews

Called by PW ``a splendid affirmation of an earlier promise of talent,'' this enthralling adventure story--replete with vivid characterizations--concerns a boy and his sister who become caught up in a life-threatening hurricane. Ages 9-12. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 5-9 In this suspenseful story the lives of the Carroll family, watermelon farmers in Bolivar, Texas, in 1900, and an old tramp named Tom become intertwined with the Galveston Flood and the legend of Jean Lafitte. Thirteen-year-old Walter Carroll and his younger sister, Alice, encounter Tom, an old black man reputed by local folks to be a dangerous madman and the son of the pirate Lafitte, as they roam the beach near their farm. He enthralls them with stories which frighten and delight them and seems to the children to be a gentle, if strange, man. Their periodic encounters with Tom over the next few months are set against a backdrop of farm work and their mother's all-consuming grief at the death of their brother the year before. The first half of the novel, in which readers come to know the Carroll family and something of old Tom, moves slowly, but the second half of the book builds to a fever pitch of intensity as the story parallels the rising waters of the storm and flood. In alternating chapters revealing Mr. Carroll's danger as he is trapped in Galveston and Tom's rescue of the rest of the family, Nelson carefully moves the story to an emotional climax and a heartwarming conclusion. Young people who demand action and emotion in their adventure stories will find the novel engrossing once they get into the story. The book is marred only by a slow beginning too filled with vague characters who speak in wooden dialect and cliched language. Once Nelson gets comfortably into the story, the language changes; the characters take on real life, and the inherent drama of the tragedy takes over. Barbara Chatton, College of Education, University of Wyoming, Laramie

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