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

Three Times Lucky - an audiobook review

Turnage, Sheila. 2012. Three Times Lucky. New York: Penguin Audio. Read by Michal Friedman.

I was looking for a good book to listen to while traveling, and I had heard rave reviews about the 2013 Newbery Honor book, Three Times Lucky.  It features North Carolina, the latest addition to my college road trip cycle, and it comes in Playaway format - how convenient since I've misplaced my mp3 player. I picked up a copy from the library before heading out.

This was the best book that I've listened to all year!  I can't tell you the number of times that I had to pause the recording, chuckling all the while, to repeat a well-turned simile or metaphor to my daughter.  If I had the print copy in hand, I could quote you a dozen - just in the first chapter.

Rising sixth grader, Mo (short for Moses) LoBeau is the funniest, winningest, spunkiest heroine of children's literature that I've met in quite a while.  By the time you've finished Three Times Lucky, you'll know every resident of Tupelo Landing, North Carolina, as well as if they were your own relations. Robbery, snobbery, lies, domestic violence, and alcoholism rear their heads as they do in every community; but despite some heavy-hitting themes, this modern-day, first person narrative is not "contemporary realistic fiction," but rather a delightfully funny, quirky murder mystery, and the story of a loving family, best friends, and a close-knit community. And oh yes, there's a hurricane.

I think you'll love it.  Suggested for ages 10 and up.

Do listen to an audio excerpt of Three Times Lucky here.  You'll love it!

Note:
After reading the book and looking for more information on its fantastic reader, Michal Friedman, I discovered that she died in 2011, from complications from a Cesarean section after giving birth to healthy twins. Heartbreaking and tragic.

The Superstorm, Hurricane Sandy - a review

Gregory, Josh. 2013. The Superstorm, Hurricane Sandy. New York: Scholastic.

Published a scant few months after the storm, The Superstorm, Hurricane Sandy is a formulaic book - part of Scholastic's A True Book - Disasters series, which includes incidents past and present, such as the BP oil spill, the Hindenberg disaster and 9-11.  Each book contains the cause, the event and the aftermath, as well as statistics, timeline, map, resources, photos and glossary.

Having lived through Superstorm Sandy, I admit to some skepticism about the quality of such hastily produced books, however, given the limited amount of time, and the impossible task of trying to measure the storm's "lasting impact" after only a few months, The Superstorm, Hurricane Sandy is an adequate account of the storm for middle-grade students. I appreciated the look into the storm's effect on the Caribbean - something that was largely missed by those of us who were coping with the storm's impact on our own lives.

I sincerely hope that some author will someday take up the task of writing a holistic, narrative nonfiction account of the storm that has forever changed the lives of millions.

For me, personally, I was satisfied to see in print what I and others in my area know all too well - a single event in the massive superstorm that wreaked the greatest havoc on the Jersey Shore. On top of an unprecedented 8' storm surge, a 39.7' wave roared ashore flooding and destroying tens of thousands of homes and business, along with roads and vital infrastructure.

"Height of highest recorded waves caused by Sandy: 39.7 ft. (12.1 m) off the New Jersey Coast."

Today's Nonfiction Monday roundup may be found at Biblio Links.  Stop by.

Care to check out the new additions to the Great Websites for Kids site?
I'll list them all on the ALSC blog today!  

Horrors of History: City of the Dead - a review

Anderson, T. Neill. 2013. Horrors of History: City of the Dead. New York: Charlesbridge.

City of the Dead is gripping historical fiction that strays very little from historical accounts of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. In ten chapters, T. Neill Anderson chronicles the unnamed hurricane from the dawn of its approach to the dawn of its passing. Employing fictional and actual persons of the time, the story unfolds from various points of view and parts of town - alternating between the orphans and sisters of the beachfront St. Mary's Orphanage, which had only three actual survivors, the inhabitants of the Lucas Terrace Apartments* located several blocks from the beach on the north side of town, Dr. Samuel Young in his sturdy home closer to the center of town, and Charlie, an African American laborer. Neill added Charlie's ordeal to the story to reflect the racial diversity that existed in Galveston at the time but is not reflected in the written annals of the storm.

The circumstances and dialogue are invented,

"It's a good thing we stooped by the grocery store last night," Alice muttered. There were almost twenty people in the parlor now -- they had all fled their houses when the flooding had become too great.The increasingly shrill cries of the cats reverberated through the living room,

But the photos, maps, and important details are real and accurate. A Prologue, Epilogue, and Author's Note put the story into context. Photo Credits are also included.


From the Epilogue:

Even to this day the Galveston hurricane of September 8, 1900, remains the deadliest natural disaster in the history of the United States.  Approximately eight thousand men, women, and children lost their lives -- in other words, about one in six Galvestonians are believed to have died, either in the hurricane or in the flood that followed.

City of the Dead: Galveston Hurricane, 1900, is the first  in the new  Horrors of History series, created for readers from age 11 - 14. Gripping, compelling and tragic, City of the Dead debuts in August, 2013.

• * Title: Lucas Terrace under which 51 people lie buried, Galveston
• Summary: Remnants of multi-story building, bricks and lumber strewn in the wake of the 1900 hurricane and flood, Galveston, Texas.
• Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-123884 (b&w film copy neg. of right half stereo)
• Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
• Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

Note:

Adult readers interested in this topic may enjoy Isaac's Storm (Random House, 2000), a true account of the disaster, the politics of weather, and of U.S. Weather Meteorologist and hurricane survivor, Isaac Cline, stationed in Galveston at the time of the hurricane. Sadly, weather politics exists today as well as one can see from the competing information provided by European and American hurricane tracking models.  A USA Today article on the deficiencies of the US model in predicting Hurricane Sandy may be found here.

Also of interest is the National Hurricane Center's page on the history of tropical cyclone naming.  In 1900, at the time of the Galveston Hurricane, it was not customary to name hurricanes.  That practice was officially adopted in the United States in 1953.

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!