Review by New York Times Review
ten years have passed since Americans were glued to their televisions, watching the catastrophic results of Hurricane Katrina. Yet much of the drama happened after the storm pummeled New Orleans. For readers too young to remember, three new books revisit those troubled days and offer a clear view of that notorious storm's impact. Explaining the complicated series of events that took place during the hurricane and in its aftermath is no easy feat, but Don Brown's graphic nonfiction account, "Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans," accomplishes the task with strong results. Gritty watercolor illustrations in somber colors project the cloud of despair hanging over the Crescent City, and brief bits of dialogue in speech bubbles support the facts that Brown lays out in a brisk, straightforward tone. One harrowing scene shows a couple escaping to their home's attic. When the rising water catches up with them, they scratch a hole through the roof with a knife. We see others who weren't so fortunate. Brown doesn't hold back in showing how the government failed in its responsibilities. Although he credits the Coast Guard and local heroes with rescuing thousands, much of his book addresses the sloppy handling of the evacuation by people in charge at all levels. In an early illustration, a railroad employee says: "We offered ... to take evacuees out of harm's way. The city declined." Below that is a short but profound sentence: "Five trains leave New Orleans empty." This book could almost make its point on the powerful illustrations alone, but Brown's precise language secures the historical details in an unforgettable way. Brown is the author and illustrator of two other nonfiction graphic historical accounts, the much praised "The Great American Dust Bowl" and "America Is Under Attack," about Sept. 11, 2001. Like those earlier books about national catastrophes, "Drowned City" delivers a brave treatment of important and uncomfortable details. Don't look for a happy ending here. Brown hints at the recovery that eventually got underway, but the book's deeper intent is clearly understood: to show that the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina's arrival in New Orleans went beyond the destruction caused by high winds, rains and flooding. HURRICANE KATRINA DID, of course, have an after-story. Two new novels take young readers on emotional journeys that convey what it's like to lose your home, your family life and your city, then discover your way back. The return may be welcome, but it's not without cost or alteration. Reesie, the main character of "Finding Someplace," by Denise Lewis Patrick, lives in the New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward. When the story opens, she eagerly awaits her 13th-birthday celebration, where she plans to debut a dress she created. The timing couldn't be worse. News of Hurricane Katrina's approach causes many of Reesie's neighbors, including her best friends, to leave New Orleans. Her police officer father's loyalty to his job and city influences his decision to stay. Her mother wants the family to flee to safety. Their polarized views cause friction between Reesie's loving parents. Through spare dialogue and small gestures, Patrick skillfully develops these characters along with others. Yet she never forgets it is Reesie's story. The hurricane brings on more changes than the devastation of Reesie's home. In the hours surrounding Katrina she experiences a first kiss, discovers her elderly neighbor's surprising past and learns that a storm can bring out the best or worst in people. Patrick is the author of many books for young readers, including the well-received story collection "A Matter of Souls." She lives in New Jersey, but was born in Natchitoches, La. In an author's note she mentions taking a drive through the Lower Ninth Ward and discovering that her aunt's newly renovated home sat next door to an empty lot where a house once stood. What she saw seems to have inspired her keen attention to building Reesie's world. In "Finding Someplace," she unfolds a complicated situation with a simple story line. Through Reesie's emotions we see the unrest created by Katrina and, eventually, her realization that a hurricane might demolish a house but it doesn't have to destroy a family. TAMARA ELLIS SMITH'S first novel, "Another Kind of Hurricane," begins with two fractured lives. Told from various points of view, the story belongs to Henry in Vermont and Zavion in New Orleans. Henry's grief over his best friend's recent death is mixed with guilt. Smith reveals why, gradually unveiling moments of the fateful day his friend died. Down South, Zavion is still coming to terms with his own grief over the death of his mother. His free-spirited artist father offers little comfort. The boys live worlds apart, and at first readers may question how their stories connect. Patience pays off. Henry's tale begins when he takes a marble from his friend's coffin. The marble was a lucky token exchanged, back and forth, between the two. In New Orleans, the arrival of Hurricane Katrina sets Zavion's story in motion. Through a series of circumstances the marble travels from person to person, eventually causing the boys to meet. When they do, readers may wonder if the journey is fueled by serendipity or magic. Henry believes retrieving the marble will hold the answer to his feelings of guilt over his friend's death. Zavion thinks paying back a debt will resolve his turmoil. The hurricane's outcome isn't glossed over. Smith takes her time showing the struggle and desperation New Orleans citizens experienced. Through Zavion, we learn how hunger may cause people to steal and how being turned away from safety at gunpoint can cover them with a veil of hopelessness. Even so, "Another Kind of Hurricane" is not dependent on Hurricane Katrina to steer the story. Grief is the driving force. With all its destruction of property and dishevelment of lives, and the rebuilding that eventually followed, Hurricane Katrina was bound to make its way into literature for all ages. These three books show young readers that when life as we know it is interrupted, sometimes we do more than survive. We come out stronger on the other side. KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT won a National Book Award for her novel "When Zachary Beaver Came to Town." Her new book, "Dear Hank Williams," is set in Louisiana.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 9, 2015]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* It has been 10 years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and, in the highly capable hands of Brown, the story remains as immediately captivating and tragic as it was in 2005. Told chronologically from the hurricane's seemingly benign origin in West Africa, the story follows the storm almost hourly, revealing every misstep along the way that resulted in so much unnecessary loss. By the time Katrina passed over New Orleans, more than 1,400 people were dead and hundreds of thousands had fled the city. Brown's narrative is clear and precise, relying exclusively on data and statistics interspersed with quotes from residents, rescue crews, journalists, and news reports. Alone, the text might lack impact, but combined with the haunting imagery, it hits readers like a punch in the gut. The illustrations capture the intensity of the disaster with saturated monochromatic panels featuring figures who appear to be literally melting with oppressive heat and fear. Small poignant scenes punctuate the narrative throughout, constantly reminding viewers of the very human costs of the disaster. Spare but emotionally resonant, this outstanding title will appeal to graphic novel and nonfiction readers alike. Highly recommended for all library collections.--Hayes, Summer Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Brown follows The Great American Dust Bowl (2013) with the story of the hurricane that destroyed New Orleans. He traces the sequence of events that left the flood levees breached and the city flooded with "a disgusting stew of oil, seawater, feces, rubber tires, foul linen, house paint, shattered lumber, and rot of all kinds." It's a grim, heartrending account. Thousands were stranded in venues utterly lacking in supplies or facilities. The crucial question of why the city's African-American community suffered disproportionately is not dealt with on its face, but Brown's artwork reflects the city's diversity, and he recounts the victims' indignities and outrages with deep sympathy. The author quotes President George W. Bush's fulsome words for the head of FEMA-"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job"-then observes, "The President's praise confuses many Americans." Lively, dynamic sketching gives the artwork a sense of urgency and immediacy. It is as important to tell the story of a nation's failures as it is to record its triumphs, and this is a crucial contribution. Ages 12-up. Agent: Angela Miller, Miller Agency. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-A murky watercolor storm spreads across pages, darkening and becoming more ominous as it builds in Brown's deeply affecting look at Hurricane Katrina. Dynamic sketches capture shocking scenes, such as residents fleeing down claustrophobic highways as the 400-mile-wide storm looms in a nearly completely dark spread. Brown depicts broken levees, flooded homes, and inhabitants scrabbling to not drown in their attics. A stunningly powerful spread shows water everywhere and two lone people trapped on a roof. The images demonstrate the utter devastation and despair while the at times spare text powerfully reveals the voices of the victims. The many failures of President Bush, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Mayor Ray Nagin, and others are repeatedly noted, as is the heroism of various organizations and ordinary people. Brown walks readers through the ghastly conditions at the Superdome, the horrors of hospitals with no electricity, and the nightmarish reality of dead bodies everywhere. The story becomes grimmer at every turn: ineffectual police and rescue efforts, looting, the lack of housing for rescued victims, and 5,000 missing children. The muted watercolors effectively capture the squalid and treacherous conditions of every inch of New Orleans. The final pages show the rebuilding efforts but note the lasting effects of vastly decreased populations. VERDICT This astonishingly powerful look at one of America's worst disasters is a masterful blend of story and art and a required purchase for all libraries.-Amanda MacGregor, Great River Regional Library, St. Cloud, MN © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
To date, the majority of childrens and young adult books about Hurricane Katrina are microcosmic stories or accounts of a single person or family. Here, in powerful comic-book format, Brown delivers the full force of the storm and its impact on the city as a whole. Beginning with Katrinas inception as just a breeze in Africa, he traces its path across the Atlantic and into the Gulf of Mexico. Evacuation procedures in New Orleans, both successful (eighty percent of the residents left) and unsuccessful (promised buses for the poor never arrived), are outlined in chilling detail as readers see residents gridlocked in traffic and also see the resignation of those remaining. When the storm hits New Orleans, Brown hits readers with the consequences: flooding, fear, frustration, desperation, and death. He follows with the overwhelming numbers: broken levees releasing one million gallons of water a minute; twenty-five thousand people taking refuge in the Superdome (and fifteen thousand in the convention center) without adequate food, water, or toilets; ten thousand rescues by the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and 33,500 rescues by the Coast Guard; plus floodwaters teeming with snakes, refuse, oil, and dead bodies. Hovering above all is the lack of coordinated help from myriad governmental agencies. Captioned with meticulously documented facts and quotes from victims, the art records these events, as it portrays people being saved or drowning, or a baby hoisted in the air above the rising waters, its fate unknown. While commanding, these images are not sensationalized. If a books power were measured like a storms, this would be a category five. Appended with source notes and a bibliography. betty carter (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Following the stellar The Great American Dust Bowl (2013), Brown tells the story of Hurricane Katrina and its impact on New Orleans, beginning with "a swirl of unremarkable wind" in "early August, 2005" and ending with the observation that "By 2012, only 80 percent of New Orleans's residents had returned." Artwork with the high quality of early Disney animationstrongly drawn figures against electrically charged watercolor backgroundsseamlessly co-tells a dramatic tale with text that ranges from simple, factual sentences to quotations from an extensive collection of books and media. The text and artwork clearly reveal two separate but inextricably connected horrors: devastation caused by a high-category hurricane and the human responsibility that lay behind the nightmarish scenarios. The book is fast-paced and hard to put down, sequential panels used to perfect advantage. A couple is shown in rising water in their home, scratching a hole through their roof to safety. Later, a crowd of 15,000 waits, without supplies, in a fetid convention center, for impossibly slow help to arrive. "Mayor Nagin is never seen there." The final frame of that series depicts a woman on her knees, crying out, "Help us!" In addition to quoting and contextualizing such now-infamous sayings as, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," the book pays homage to the heroism of many, both professionals and volunteers. An excellent chronicle of the tragedy for a broad audience; children, teens, and adults will all be moved. (source notes, bibliography) (Graphic nonfiction. 12 up) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
