Between Two Skies

February 20, 2017
O’Sullivan’s first novel, an elegantly written coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of Hurricane Katrina, opens in the village of Bayou Perdu on the Gulf of Mexico on the eve of Evangeline Riley’s 16th birthday. The third Evangeline in her family, she harbors a deep love for her rundown village and its surrounding waters. When Katrina approaches, Evangeline and her parents, older sister, and Cajun grandmother evacuate, ending up in Atlanta, where her Aunt Cel sets them up with an apartment and enrolls the sisters in school. The setting is a far cry from Bayou Perdu, where Evangeline’s mother ran a diner and her father was a shrimper; inevitable family tensions arise, but Evangeline finds friendship, romance, and a nurturing school counselor. While the story is somewhat predictable, O’Sullivan creates suspense on several fronts and gives Evangeline a lyrical and endearing voice; as first love blossoms, “A shiver runs through me, the way an egret’s feathers ripple slightly in the wind as it’s about to take flight.” Ages 12–up. Agent: Claire Anderson-Wheeler, Regal Hoffmann & Associates.

February 1, 2017

Gr 7 Up-In August of 2005, Evangeline Riley is starting her junior year of high school in Bayou Perdu, LA. While many kids in her school talk about how they cannot wait to escape small-town life, Evangeline cannot imagine leaving her fairy tale-like surroundings. The daughter of a fisherman, Evangeline has inherited her father's passion for the sea. She feels most at home on the family's skiff, exploring the hidden treasures of the deep bayous. During one of her sojourns, Evangeline comes to the rescue of Tru, who has run himself aground. Although the teens are almost immediately smitten with each other, their budding relationship comes to a halt when Hurricane Katrina ravages the Gulf Coast. After Evangeline and her family evacuate, their entire town is pulled into the ocean. Tru and Evangeline do find each other again, but love is hard when one has no home. In the years that have passed since Hurricane Katrina, there have been many stories about the immediate devastation to New Orleans. This tale reminds readers that there were millions of people all over the gulf affected by this tragedy and that for many, the horror of the event was only beginning, not ending, when the skies cleared.

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 1, 2017
Heartache and deracination wrapped in the lyrical sigh of an epic poem unfold into one girl's story of struggle, devastation, and survival. O'Sullivan's soulful debut follows the Beauchamp clan of Bayou Perdu from the days before Hurricane Katrina scattered the shores of Louisiana's Gulf Coast to the aftermath that turned natives into refugees and temporary shelters into homes. Evangeline, a "white, mostly" Cajun girl, loves the tiny speck of paradise she and her family inhabit 66 miles from New Orleans. What separates Evangeline's story from the myriad others that have come and gone in the wake of one of the nation's worst natural disasters is O'Sullivan's deft lyricism. One minute, Evangeline is just a girl managing her crush on Vietnamese-American shrimper and musician Tru, a girl who loves where she lives and doesn't yearn for much else. Then the swirling white blur on the weather forecast stirs up sediment and trees and lives and hopes and tomorrows. Evangeline and her family go from lifetime residents of a close-knit fishing community to refugees in landlocked Atlanta. Displaced, confused, and resentful, the Beauchamps are adrift. O'Sullivan pairs the ache of her Evangeline with the anguish felt by the Acadian protagonists of the famous Longfellow poem. O'Sullivan's light touch and restraint will allow readers to follow Evangeline as she stands howling into the wind that howled into her. (Historical fiction. 12-16)

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Starred review from February 15, 2017
Grades 7-12 *Starred Review* Sixteen-year-old Evangeline Riley has a rich and contented life. Tiny Bayou Perdu, a shrimping and fishing town in Louisiana, offers all she needs: best friends, family, salt air, gumbo, and pure peace when she's on the water. During a local festival, she meets Tru, a Vietnamese boy she can't get out of her mind; but shortly thereafter, Hurricane Katrina forces evacuation. Chaos and destruction push them away, as the Rileys seek refuge with an aunt in Atlanta. There Evangeline feels lost and restless, craving home and the familiar, while her family struggles to rebuild their lives. When she and Tru discover they attend the same high school with other Katrina refugees, they forge an unbreakable bond. However, life remains unstable for them both, and when Evangeline's family is given a FEMA trailer back home, not everyone in the Riley family wants to return. O'Sullivan's debut novel excels in its expressive language and the use of place: a colorful home, a city that contrasts with the one Evangeline lost, and the aftermath of the storm that destroyed almost everything she holds dear. Told in a strong, purposeful voice filled with controlled emotion and hope, the impact of Katrina on families is as compelling as Evangeline's drive to regain her sense of self and belonging.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2017
After Hurricane Katrina destroys her beloved Louisiana bayou hometown, Evangeline Riley and her family move temporarily to Atlanta. The turmoil of relocation, entering a new school, facing a loss of income, and adapting to an almost foreign culture wears on everyone in her family. The sense of place is vividly evoked, and Evangeline's circumstances authentically reflect the experiences of Katrina refugees.

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)