Tells the story that most of us are now familiar with. The artwork uses water colors so nothing is defined, especially people. That makes the work less impactful, as there is very little emotion coming from the pages. The most defined people were the politicians. It felt too emotionally distant and academic for me.

Update #2

I got another 50 minutes of reading in while doing the laundry. I spent it reading Just Mercy as that has been on July's TBR pile for the longest. 

Highlights

Books read: 4; 2 graphic novels, 2 ebooks

Time read: 4 hours and 55 minutes

Challenges: 0

Next is to review another bunch of books for COYER and get ready for BoB23 (August).

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Update #1

I got 30 minutes of reading done yesterday morning (yay kids' swim class!). That was it. So to make an even small dent in this read-a-thon, I cleared my calendar for today so I could read. So far today I have read for 3 hours and 35 minutes and got a lot done. I've read Drowned City: Hurrican Katrina and New Orleans by Don Brown (graphic novel), Gaijin: American Prisoner of War by Matt Faulkner (graphic novel), finished Bespoke: A Tiny Christmas Tale by Amanda Dykes (historical romance), and At Your Request (Apart From the Crowd #0.5) by Jen Turano (historical romance).

Probably won't get to anymore reading until I go do laundry tonight, so maybe one more update from me. I hope all my fellow participants in 24 in 48 are doing well and getting books off their TBR done.

I read this book for my graphic novel class and for a free read Friday. It is very well done. I learned a lot about the aftermath of Hurrican Katrina in New Orleans, details I wasn't aware of before. Don Brown does a great job of presenting facts without a lot of bias. He uses facts and quotes to present the information. The illustrations are sepia toned and provide emotional details not given in the text. The faces are very expressive and even the way Brown draws the bodies shows how devastating the events were for the people of New Orleans.

Free Friday Read

96 pages = $2.00

I'm reading this book as my third Free Read Friday. It was assigned for my graphic novel class. I started reading it today, so it qualifies for both.

It's a graphic novel about the effects of Hurricane Katrina.

What amazed me most about this graphic novel was how well it depicts the devastation that Hurricane Katina caused in New Orleans and in the surrounding communities. The intensity, distress and ugliness that surrounded this event were felt throughout the illustrations and in the text. As this storm gathers steam in Africa in the beginning pages and it makes its way across the Atlantic waters, I could see the swirling black mass approaching the coastline, getting darker and gathering strength, as individuals are being warned to leave. Some residents have decided to stay, their reasons being personal or transportation has become an issue for them. There seems to be lack of communication between the residents and the individuals in charge and I found throughout this novel, there are many instances of this, where people are not communicating with one another and this lack of communication causes major issues in this disaster. Free city buses were supposedly offered to help individuals evacuate but it seems that these buses never showed up.   Later, rescue efforts to retrieve individuals trapped by flood waters had them choosing whether they wanted to be rescued or stay where they were with their pets. For some individuals their pet(s) are their lives and they choose to stay with their pet(s) putting their lives in danger.   Its instances like this that made me realize the magnitude of this event. Don’t get me started on the Superdome, but I was glad that Don covers it in great deal in this graphic novel.

Individuals were acting alone and this novel shows the isolation that many in the community felt and what it finally takes for the issues to get resolved.   This is not a novel that you can read quickly, it is an emotional one. The text gives us the figures and the facts but it’s the illustrations that hit us the hardest.   They show us what it was like to be on the scene, be among the confusion and destruction, it was the scenes that take place both above water and underwater that I truly adored them.   It’s a powerful story, of human suffering, of individuals coming together, of a nation that made mistakes and hopefully learned from them and of hero’s that live in our own backyard. I remember being glued to my television when this was all unfolding, I couldn’t believe that this was happening and my heart broke for these people and reading this graphic novel, brought it all back to me. I can’t say enough about what a great job Don Brown did with this novel.