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:
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
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