"Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina & New Orleans" by Don Brown

One of this year's award winners, "Drowned City:  Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans" by Don Brown, is a triumph.  It is a great example of how graphic novels can transmit complex concepts, well researched with high level vocabulary.  It is so well researched, in fact, that I learned a number of things I didn't know -- and I am one of the thousands of people who went down there to rebuild in the years after the disaster.  This isn't a textbook, however.  This is a story, where fact and emotion blend to create a powerful narrative.  It unfolds in a very linear way, with artwork showing the storm's formation in Africa, it's travel to the U.S. Coast, formation in the gulf, even the communities wiped out before New Orleans was impacted.  The art isn't just good, there is a tremendous emotional impact, with swirling blues and blacks spreading across double pages, evoking a sense of the open space being closed off, as the citizens of the city were, by the power of the hurricane.  Unlike AD:  New Orleans after the Deluge, the details of the days following are not glamorized nor played down.  This is the power of a really good graphic novel.  The words tell the story in clinical detail, while the images portray the pathos, desperation and agony of the human toll.  It is an excellent book, one that reminds us of a massive failure of our nation to respond to this tragedy, and one we should not forget.