“Calling to mind such widely disparate writers as Mark Twain, Andre Norton and Peter Dickinson, Stevermer paints a realistic ruin of society.” —Publishers Weekly The award-winning author of the Scholarly Magic series delivers the thrilling adventure of a crew of young kids working their way through a post-apocalyptic world on a steamboat they call home . . . No one knows for sure what caused the Flash. They just know that nothing has been the same since. Cities have been destroyed by pestilence, riots, and fires. The paddleboat River Rat, once a museum, was turned into an orphanage. But a dangerous storm forced the children to flee with the boat to safer waters, making it theirs for good. Since then, Tomcat, Toby, Esteban, Lindy, Spike, and Jake have traveled, bartered, and performed their way up and down the Mississippi River. One rule that has served them well: no passengers. But after watching a man on shore being pursued by a vicious pack of locals, the group has no choice but to save him. At every stop, the boat is met by the man’s tireless hunters. They want what the fugitive knows: the location of a bunker filled with guns. A currency more valuable than gold . . . and one that the crew of the River Rat might well pay for—with their lives. “An unusual, compelling futuristic novel . . . wry, sharp, lively, and perceptive.” —The Horn Book (starred review) “Too good to miss.” —Booklist An ALA Best Book for Young Adults A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age

They Called Us River Rats: The Last Batture Settlement of New Orleans is the previously untold story of perhaps the oldest outsider settlement in America, an invisible community on the annually flooded shores of the Mississippi River. This community exists in the place between the normal high and low water line of the Mississippi River, a zone known in Louisiana as the batture. For the better part of two centuries, batture dwellers such as Macon Fry have raised shantyboats on stilts, built water-adapted homes, foraged, fished, and survived using the skills a river teaches. Until now the stories of this way of life have existed only in the memories of those who have lived here. Beginning in 2000, Fry set about recording the stories of all the old batture dwellers he could find: maritime workers, willow furniture makers, fishermen, artists, and river shrimpers. Along the way, Fry uncovered fascinating tales of fortune tellers, faith healers, and wild bird trappers who defiantly lived on the river. They Called Us River Rats also explores the troubled relationship between people inside the levees, the often-reviled batture folks, and the river itself. It traces the struggle between batture folks and city authorities, the commercial interests that claimed the river, and Louisiana’s most powerful politicians. These conflicts have ended in legal battles, displacement, incarceration, and even lynching. Today Fry is among the senior generation of “River Rats” living in a vestigial colony of twelve “camps” on New Orleans’s river batture, a fragment of a settlement that once stretched nearly six miles and numbered hundreds of homes. It is the last riparian settlement on the Lower Mississippi and a contrarian, independent life outside urban zoning, planning, and flood protection. This book is for everyone who ever felt the pull of the Mississippi River or saw its towering levees and wondered who could live on the other side.

Kenny Salwey is a modern-day American hermit who has lived most of his life in the Mississippi river bottoms, coming to know the river ecosystem with an intimacy unavailable to most. Now, Kenny shares his love of, and knowledge about, the mighty river. The Last River Rat is a seasonal look at Kenny's unique life.

The River Rat Murders presents the first part of the diary of Caroline Case, a Wabash Valley Madame, during Prohibition. After the murder of her friend Alec in 1921, Caroline becomes an amateur but extremely resourceful detective. She and her mysterious new friend, Hannibal Jones, her "girls" and an odd assortment of local characters solve five murders. They get no help from the authorities, who are on the take from gangsters who control the booze trade in the Valley. Caroline, Hannibal and their friends call themselves "The River Rat Detective Agency." As they solve the murders, they become involved in the war between Al Capone and the North Side gang over control of the booze trade. There are shootouts, kidnappings and daring rescues. Over time (1921-1928), Caroline evolves from humble beginnings into a sophisticated, liberated woman. She accumulates wealth from investments in speakeasies, roadhouses and upscale salons. She uses her money to help her friends and to invest in legitimate businesses. After the fifth murder and an attempt on her life, she and Hannibal escape to their first adventure outside of the Valley. In 1928, just before the crash of the stock market, Caroline and Hannibal solve a sixth murder, this time at a high-end resort in Florida. This murder relates back to murders in the Valley and to Al Capone, who has his vacation house at 93 Palm Island, Miami Beach, Florida. At the end of the story, Capone lifts the bounty on Caroline, and she and Hannibal are off to new adventures. In this second Wind Grass Hill murder-mystery, Frank L. Gertcher lets Caroline Case tell her own story of booze, gang wars, love and adventure. Although fiction, Caroline's story rings true to the fascinating history and colorful characters who lived, loved and died in the bawdy towns along the Wabash River during the heyday of Prohibition. More murder mysteries will follow, as Caroline and Hannibal continue their adventures!

The United States Navys fight for control of the waters of Southeast Asia. By far the greatest contribution of the narrative is the insight it provides into the hows and whys of United States involvement in Vietnam, and the attempt of that involvement to bring freedom to those who were unable to achieve it by their own efforts. We see the United States more as a caretaker and less as a policeman in terms of motivation for its involvement half a world away. Andwe see the tremendous price paid by those who served to ensure that freedom ordinary men who, by fate, were thrown together in a strange land, and who fulfilled a part of their destiny, and their Nations, on the brown water. Weldon Bleiler

Starting in St. Louis, Missouri, River Rat journeys down the Mississippi River for an adventure of discovery. The river measures 2,320 miles and can be very wide in places. There are a lot of exciting things to see. Along the way, River Rat experiences the sights and sounds typically found on a large waterway, from fishing to birds to wildlife and more. He arrives in New Orleans, Louisiana, just in time for Mardi Gras. Inspired by author Nitha Ann Nebbitt’s experiences on the Mississippi as a child, this picture book for children introduces kids to nature and the wonder of this mighty river.

In 1748 fourteen-year-old Matt, orphaned, crippled, teased by other boys and abused by the man he works for, seeks refuge with a surgeon's family and finds that he is well-equipped to help protect them from pirates on Delaware Bay.