Award-winning author/illustrator Don Brown (The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees) brings his resonant storytelling to the pivotal tragic attacks of September 11, 2001, in this powerfully emotional graphic novel.
Most adults remember exactly where they were when two airliners struck the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in New York City. But for those who weren't born yet or were too young to realize the impact of that day, Don Brown contextualizes in In the Shadow of the Fallen Towers the moments immediately after the attacks and in the months and years that followed.
He begins at 10:28 a.m., when the South Tower collapsed, and follows a group of firefighters into what will eventually be called "the Pile." From there Brown captures the voices of the victims in their own words: "At that point I realized I was going to die...." Provocative pen, ink and digital paint illustrations are chilling and emotive, and frank narration bears witness to unexpected perspectives, like "pets in kennels waiting for their owners." Brown's broken panels and loose drawing style colored in muddled blues, grays and browns--the only bright colors shining from fires that "continue for months" and the red and blue of the American flag--mimic the confusion and pervasive sadness. An afterword discusses the cost of war, rise of hate crimes against Muslims and health problems incurred by first responders. Eye-opening statistics and an extensive bibliography are also included. This hard-hitting graphic novel is reverential and revelatory. --Lana Barnes, freelance reviewer and proofreader