Drowned City
Hurricane Katrina & New Orleans
by Don Brown
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015. 96 pages.
2016 Sibert Honor
Nonfiction in comic book form is an idea whose time has come. What could be more memorable? Do you want to teach history in a way kids will pay attention, absorb, and understand? In fact, speaking for myself, this is a way adults can read it and absorb much more information than reading regular text.
Now, the story of Hurricane Katrina is not a pleasant story at all. This feels more hard-hitting than The Great American Dust Bowl, since the people involved, including those who bungled the response, are still alive. Though both stories are horrific. And the reader can understand that better with the graphic illustrations.
Don Brown uses a variety of panel arrangements and colors to keep interest high. Leafing through the pages, you get a sense of action.
The book does end on a hopeful note. The last spread is a picture of new construction. The text on the last page says:
One ruined neighborhood, the lower ninth ward, is overgrown with plants and weeds and has just 15 percent of the population it had before Katrina. But new houses are going up, built atop deeply driven piles, giving them firm roots to stop them from floating away during the next Katrina. The man setting the piles is a “born and raised” New Orleanian.
“We’re coming back. This is home. This is life.”
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/drowned_city.html
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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.
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