Life-giver, Death-bringer:

Teaching children about water and symbolism through literature can be an excellent way to engage their imagination while developing their analytical skills. Jewell Parker Rhodes’s award-winning middle grade novel, Ninth Ward, offers a rich opportunity for interdisciplinary, ecocritical inquiry within standards-based learning and teaching expectations. This article suggests youth participatory action research as an active learning strategy for engaging youth in community-based investigations of water connected to their study of water's literal and figurative significance in the novel.