Hurricane Child

Overview

Kacen Callender's "Hurricane Child" follows Caroline Murphy, a twelve-year-old growing up on St. Thomas who believes she was marked for misfortune the moment she was born during a storm. She is isolated at school, trailed by a spirit no one else can perceive, and left adrift after her mother disappears without explanation.

The arrival of Kalinda, a new student from Barbados, shifts the course of Caroline's year. Their friendship deepens into Caroline's first real attachment to another person, and eventually into feelings she has to work to understand and accept. Alongside this emotional awakening runs a quieter, more urgent plot: Caroline's determination to find out why her mother left and to bring her home.

The two threads converge as Caroline and Kalinda journey into the heart of an oncoming hurricane, forcing Caroline to confront the ghost that has followed her, the truth about her family, and her own sense of who she is.

A Coming-of-Age Story Rooted in Place

Much of the novel's identity comes from its setting. Callender writes the US Virgin Islands as a living presence rather than a backdrop, weaving in local folklore, island rhythms, and a sense of inherited superstition that shapes how Caroline sees herself. The hurricane of the title is both literal weather and a recurring symbol for the upheaval inside Caroline's family and her own emerging sense of identity.

The book sits within a body of middle-grade and young-adult fiction that pairs supernatural or folkloric elements with grounded emotional stakes — grief, abandonment, and the search for belonging. Caroline's growing awareness of her romantic feelings for Kalinda is treated as one part of a larger reckoning with loss and selfhood, rather than as the sole focus of the story. The novel has been recognized within children's and young-adult literature circles for its handling of Caribbean culture and for centering a young, same-gender attraction within a middle-grade framework, a combination still uncommon in the category.

Why Hurricane Child Has Been Challenged

Reviewers have praised the novel's atmosphere and emotional honesty, yet those same qualities are precisely what has drawn scrutiny from some parents and school officials. The objections center less on plot mechanics than on the fact that a book marketed to middle-grade readers depicts a young girl's developing romantic feelings for another girl. Critics of the book's placement in elementary and middle-school libraries have argued that this content is inappropriate for the age group, regardless of the restrained way it is portrayed.

A second thread of objection involves the book's incorporation of spirits and island folklore, which some challengers have characterized as promoting occult or supernatural themes unsuitable for young readers. Taken together, these concerns — over sexual orientation and over folkloric/supernatural content — have made "Hurricane Child" a recurring target in broader efforts to restrict books addressing LGBTQ+ identity in children's literature. The novel has been challenged in 2 states and 3 districts tracked in this catalog, with objections typically framed around age-appropriateness rather than any claim of explicit content, since the book itself describes Caroline's feelings with restraint rather than graphic detail.