Drowned City by Don Brown Book Review

Hurricane Katrina is one of the most devastating disasters to ever hit the United States of America. In the graphic novel Drowned City, written and illustrated by Don Brown, Don explains, how the hurricane's catastrophic impact left countless people vulnerable and even dead. Millions of people who where fortunate enough to have a car fled the city, but with millions of people leaving there was a big traffic jamb. One family spent ten hours on the road just to travel seventy miles. In the novel Zane and the Hurricane, written by Rodman Philbrick, the story is put into a twelve year old boys perspective who suffered through the hurricane. Zane’s dad died before Zane was even born. One day Zane’s mom goes on quest to find Zane’s grandma. She finally found where she lives and gets in touch with her. Later that day Zane’s mom gets Zane a ticket to New Orleans, Louisiana to go meet his grandma. 

The book Drowned City, by Don Brown and Zane and the Hurricane, by Rodman Philbrick both focus on the theme of destruction. In the graphic novel Drowned City states that on August 26, the national weather service announces that Katrina will hit new orleans in twenty-four hours. One million people where able to flee the state, but there was still two hundred thousand people remaining. The hundred thousand people who are still in New Orleans go to there attic but it just floods, families that find knifes in there attic used it to create a hole through there roof to be able to escape. Coast guards take to the air and water, hoisting people out of the floods. Over the next ten days, the coast guards rescue thirty three thousand five hundred people. In the novel Zane and the Hurricane, a twelve year old boy, Zane, is going to New Orleans with his dog to visit his grandma. He never in a million years suspected that a hurricane would happen. Hurricane Katrina hits. Like any other twelve year old kid, Zane was frightened. The storm waters down the city, shelters and food vanish. Police contribute to a dangerous, frightening atmosphere by trying to save people. Philbrick includes the ignorance and lack of government support during the disaster as well as the generosity and courage of those who risked their lives and safety to help others.

Zane and the Hurricane differs from Brown’s book because readers learn about the destruction of New Orleans through a fiction novel and character. Some other differences through out the two books is that in Zane and the Hurricane it was more of a story at the beginning the way they described how dad died before Zane was born and how mom tried to find grandma so Zane could visit her. In Drowned City they got right to the point stating how the national weather service said that Hurricane Katrina will hit in twenty four hours. Lastly, in Zane and the Hurricane the government didn’t do anything to help with the situation. In Drowned City the governor was on vacation but instead of not focusing on the crisis he sent ambulances, helicopters, police, etc to help find people and take them out of the flood.

On the other hand, in his novel Drowned City, Don Brown presents the theme of destruction through concrete and sometimes horrifying facts about Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath. Drowned City states the number clearly of how many people went missing, how guards where able to rescue thirty three thousand five hundred people, how many people where able to flee before things got much worse, etc. In Zane and the Hurricane it did not detail the facts very well instead of giving an exact number it would say thousands or many people went missing. The novel was told more in a child's perspective of the hurricane, rather in Drowned City it mentioned facts and gave many details. Another interesting fact one would not have learned without reading Drowned City is that people went and looted stores taking advantage that there where no security guards. That was never stated in Zane and the Hurricane and one might feel that it is a very important fact to be told.