Drowned City - a review

 The National Council of Teachers of English recently named Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina & New Orleans by Don Brown (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015) the winner of its prestigious Orbis Pictus Award.

The NCTE Orbis Pictus Award  was established in 1989 for promoting and recognizing excellence in the writing of nonfiction for children. The name Orbis Pictus, commemorates the work of Johannes Amos Comenius, Orbis Pictus—The World in Pictures (1657), considered to be the first book actually planned for children. (from the NCTE website)

Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina & New Orleans is a spare, but powerful graphic novel account of the tragedy that befell the City of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.  Don Brown researches and illustrates Drowned City in his usual fashion.  It has extensive Source Notes and a corresponding Bibliography.  Every direct quote is sourced.  The illustrations are serious and in muted colors to accurately convey the gravity of the events; but they are sufficiently vague to spare the individual horror experienced by victims, survivors, and rescuers.  As he has done with other topics, Don Brown creates a focused, accurate, and powerful story - suitable for visual learners and for readers in a wide age range.


Other Hurricane Katrina books reviewed on this site:

• Saint Louis Armstrong Beach 
• A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge

Also by Don Brown and reviewed by Shelf-employed:

• America is Under Attack: September 11, 2001: The Day the Towers Fell
• The Great American Dust Bowl 
• All Stations! Distress!: April 15, 1912: The Day the Titanic Sank 
• Let it Begin Here!: April 19, 1775: The Day the American Revolution Began

Saint Louis Armstrong Beach - a review

Woods, Brenda. 2011. Saint Louis Armstrong Beach. New York: Nancy Paulsen (Penguin Group)

It's hard to believe that I'm labeling a book about Hurricane Katrina "historical fiction," but to middle-grade readers, that's exactly what it is.  While memories of  Katrina are still fresh in the minds of New Orleans and Gulf Coast residents, 2005 is a lifetime ago for a 5th grader, born in 2001.

This first-person fictionalized account of 11-year-old Saint Louis Armstrong Beach (named for his grandfather King Saint and the famous trumpeter), tells the brief story of the run-up to Hurricane Katrina, the storm (in which he is trapped with an elderly neighbor), and its aftermath.  With freakish good luck and a family with money and decent jobs, Saint will fare better than many, if not most, New Orleanians actually did.  However, Saint Louis Armstrong Beach: A Novel (a boy, a dog, and the hurricane that almost separated them) serves as an excellent middle-grade introduction to this important page in American history.  The plight of the less fortunate provides a backdrop for Saint's story.  When he wonders why others are not evacuating to shelter in other cities, his father reminds him that not all people can leave,

"And who's gonna pay for that?  Some people got no jobs, others got no money, and when I say no money ... I mean no money.  Some people got nuthin' except the clothes on their backs, Saint."
"Money's real important, huh?"
"Yep, but what you do with it is even more important.  Most a the people who claim money's not important are folks who have plenty of it.  You remember that."

If it's a tad didactic and Saint is a tad too saintly, so be it.  Sometimes we need the obvious lesson. A short (136 pages) and accessible book for young readers. Light on scientific information, pair this one with an appropriate nonfiction title.

Brenda Woods is a Coretta Scott King Honor Award winner for The Red Rose Box.

Other reviews @
Kirkus Reviews
Waking Brain Cells
Bermuda Onion's Weblog

Teachers, there's a Reader's Companion for Saint Louis Armstrong Beach.

New Orleans A.D.

I'll be leaving New Orleans today after a wonderful experience at ALA Annual.  Here are a few thoughts on the Crescent City and its inhabitants:

• The ease and politeness of the Big Easy is notable.  With very few exceptions, the local population was friendly and accommodating - even to three librarians on an expense account. ("Can we have three separate checks?" "Sure, no problem." "Can we check out an hour late?" "I can do that.")

• New Orleans is a religious city.  Plentiful are the numbers of transportation companies bearing the name of the Almighty.  The Lord's Son may even be found endorsing iPhone repair. If there is debauchery on Bourbon Street, it is a tourist production; New Orleans serves only to provide the venue.

• If there is one thing that New Orleanians would like you to know, it is that New Orleans was not a victim of Hurricane Katrina.  Yes, the hurricane passed close by and caused damage from wind and rain.  However, the devastation of New Orleans was caused by human failure - the failure of the levees, the failure of the local infrastructure.  They want us to know that, to remember that, and to ensure that it never happens again.

• There are many books written about the New Orleans experience during and after Hurricane Katrina.  If you're looking for a distilled, visceral interpretation that is accessible to teens, look no further than Josh Neufeld's graphic novel, New Orleans After the Deluge (Knopf 2010).

I'll be finishing the book on the plane.  I think I know how it turns out.

So long, New Orleans, it's been great!

Hurricane Katrina

Fradin, Judith Bloom and Dennis Brindell Fradin. 2010. Hurricane Katrina (Turning Points in U.S. History). Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish.

Hurricane Katrina is part of the Turning Points in U.S. History collection by Marshall Cavendish, appropriate for Grades 3 and up. In simple language,

On the evening of August 25, Hurricane Katrina slammed into southeastern Florida near Miami.  With winds blowing at 80 miles (129 km) per hours, Katrina at this time was a Category One hurricane, the weakest kind.  It toppled trees, knocked down power lines, and flooded streets.  In all, Katrina killed sixteen people in Florida.  This was a bad situation, but Katrina was just getting started.

Hurricane Katrina provides a comprehensive look at one of our country's biggest disasters.  Six chapters outline the science of hurricanes, a chronology of events, the plight of those left behind, the aftermath of the disaster and lessons learned.  The facts are presented without politics or bias, but do include the controversy that followed the government's handling of the crisis.

Inset text boxes add context to the story, relating hurricane facts, hurricane history, and individual experiences - both positive and negative.  Numerous photos are included.  Completing the book are a Glossary, Timeline, Further Information pages, Bibliography and Index.

For an uplifting Hurricane Katrina story, read Two Bobbies: A true story of Hurricane Katrina, friendship, and survival by Kirby Larson and Mary Nethery - a Junior Library Guild Selection.

You can check out all of today's Non-Fiction Monday posts at this week's host,

Wild About Nature.