This is a fantastic and well-researched story about survival during Hurricane Katrina and the breaking of the levees. Messner demonstrated compassion for the residents of the Lower Ninth Ward by visiting the Living Museum there and interviewing survivors to make sure this story reflected the reality of the disaster and poor government response. I recently watched Spike Lee's documentary When the Levees Broke and found Ranger's tale to follow the timeline of events faithfully. Ranger also thinks and acts like a dog, which adds to the book's realism. Overall, I was positively surprised by the quality of this middle-grade book and highly prefer it to the sensational I Survived series.