From Publishers Weekly:
Al Roker has chosen Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes (Little, Brown, Aug.) as the latest pick in his Book Club for Kids on the Today Show. Set in New Orleans before and during Hurricane Katrina, the middle-grade novel tells the story of 12-year-old Lanesha, who lives in the city’s Ninth Ward with the elderly midwife who delivered her; Lanesha is able to see ghosts, including that of her mother.