In the Shadow of the Fallen Towers: The Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months, and Years After the 9/11 Attacks

Brown, Down. In the Shadow of the Fallen Towers: The Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months, and Years After the 9/11 Attacks. 2021. 120p. ISBN 9780358223573. Available in the graphic novels section of the library.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, struck at the heart of the American psyche. The events directly impacted thousands of people in New York City, Washington D.C, and in Pennsylvania. Hundred of thousands more then served to first rescue then retrieve bodies from the crash sites and from the collapsed towers, while others served in the military to bring the fight to those who had planned and sponsored the attack. 

The story is by now well known. What is not well known, however, are individual stories of valor, sacrifice, courage, and determination to survive. In this powerful graphic novel, the lives of people, from a cameraman who happened to be filming near the Twin Towers to heroic firefighters who ran into the burning towers moments after airplanes crashed into them. Each life was irrevocably changed by the attacks, causing permanent injuries and deaths.

Over the course of the next days and months, the fires in New York were put out, and the grisly task of clearing out the rubble and respectfully recovering the bodies of those still entombed began. At the same time, war started in Afghanistan as American troops, allied with local warlords, sought to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden, the terrorist mastermind behind the attacks. 

Readers who enjoy history will appreciate the attention to details the author provides for each and every panel. The story is engaging and serves as a reminder that individuals can make a difference and change the world.

Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control

Benjamin, Medea. Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control. 2012. 262p. ISBN 9781935928.

Drones enhance the nation's military arsenal, limiting threats to pilots and providing the ability to operate for a long time above targets. They also represent a growing menace to people everywhere, as the ability to deliver deadly missiles at a long range is democratizing the number and models of drones available on the market. Drone Warfare explores the history of drones and how they are currently used.

The United States pioneered the use of drones, and employs them to conduct surveillance on the border and in cities, to conduct attacks against military targets and those deemed to be terrorists, and to monitor environmental conditions during forest fires and flooding. Their legal use is ill-defined. Can a drone be used to target and kill an American citizen without due process? President Obama certainly thought so, when he ordered the death of a Yemeni American accused of terrorism. Would Americans approve of China using a drone to attack a person it considered a terrorist in New York City? Legal and moral discussions need to take place to guide further deployment and utilization of these deadly tools.

All Fall Down

Carter, Ally. All Fall Down. Book 1 of the Embassy Row. 2015. 301p. ISBN 978-0-545-65474-6. Available at FIC CAR on the library shelves.

Three years ago, Grace witnessed the brutal murder of her mother by a man sporting a large facial scar. The fire that then destroyed her mother's bookstore led the authorities to rule her death an accident, but Grace saw the man shoot her mother. Despite her pleas for help and for tracking that man, she was ignored, or worse, deemed mentally unstable by those around her. With her loving older brother now gone to serve in the military, and with her father also deployed, Grace returns to Adria, where her grandfather runs the United States embassy.

Once back on Embassy Row, Grace meets several of the teens whose parents serve as ambassadors or staff of national embassies. Alexei lives next door and is the son of the Russian ambassador. He remembers Grace from ten years ago when she would visit her grandfather. Somehow he always seems to find himself near Grace when she tries to escape the stifling environment of the U.S. Embassy. It soon becomes obvious that he is acting as a babysitter, but on who's behalf?

Grace also realizes that no one is interested in her mother's murder. Everyone wants to her put on a show, pretend to be happy, and go on with her life. When Grace recognizes a denizen of Embassy Row as her mother's killer, her desire for revenge is rekindled. But trying to solve a murder can prove to be deadly, and soon Grace finds herself implicated in a deadly conspiracy ...

The Truth about PCP

Poolos, Christine. The Truth about PCP. Part of the Drugs & Consequences series. Available at 362.29 POO on the library shelves.

First developed in the first decades of the 20th century as an intravenous anesthetic designed to numb patients during surgeries, phencyclidine had such bad side effects that it was soon discontinued. Patients had reported severe hallucinatory and disorientating symptoms. Phencyclidine was then used on animals, with similar results. The drug was quickly finding itself out of markets when the youth counterculture adopted it in the 1960s. Easier and cheaper to manufacture than LSD, phencyclidine experienced a resurgence in tablet form known as the PeaCe Pill, soon abbreviated to PCP.

Never as popular as some of the other illegal drugs, PCP nevertheless still found a niche among people wanting to score a cheap high in the 1970s. Replaced by crack cocaine in the 1980s, PCP abuse diminished greatly until it went through a resurgence in the 2000s, when street gangs and organized crime began to manufacture and distribute it throughout the United States.

The same symptoms that banned PCP from the anesthetic market in the 1950s and 1960s continue to affect users, who can experience hallucinatory episodes, with possible seizures, organ failures, coma, severe psychotic breaks, and even extreme violence and death. Some PCP users do not feel pain and lose access to some of their more advanced processing skills, and therefore can perceived themselves as being superhuman. Dangers remain, however, and one can easily lose everything through a bad trip.

Perfect for a research project or to learn more about this drug, The Truth about PCP not only presents the history of the drug, but also discusses its social and health effects, as well as what treatment can be done to recover from PCP.

The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation

Jacobson, Sid and Ernie Colón. The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation. 2006. 133p. ISBN 978-0-8090-5739-9. Available at 973.931 JAC on the library shelves.

September 11, 2001 was a failure of imagination on the part of the government. The very idea that people would hurl plans into buildings had never been entertained. Though there were many instances where the hijackers could have been thwarted, the various intelligence and law enforcement organizations did not share their information and therefore did not connect the dots in time. In the following months and years, new agencies were created, laws were passed, and a commission was created to investigate what had happened.

This book turns the 9/11 Commission's Report into a graphic novel. It relates the history that led to the terrorist attacks. It reviews what was known before September 11, who knew it, and how the dots could have been connected. The principal protagonists are presented, and the reaction of the United States in the months after the World Trade Center Towers fell. Fans of history will appreciate the details the illustrators used to recreate an otherwise dry government report, and will gain a new understanding of why 9/11 remains important in the nation's psyche.

Pharrell

Vetere, Lori. Pharrell. Part of the Hip-Hop & R&B Culture, Music & Storytelling series. 2019. 80p. ISBN 978-1-4222-4183-7. Available at B WIL on the library shelves. 

 

Pharrell Williams is a famous singer and music producer known for his mega-hit Happy. An accomplished artist, Pharrell's work touch more than music, with dives in fashion, movies, and writing as well. Born in 1973 in Virginia, Pharell quickly demonstrated an interest and a talent in music. His mother encouraged him to learn and practice, and he joined the school band in 7th grade, where he met his lifelong friend and group member Chad Hugo. Together they created the Neptunes, a production company that since the 1990s has created some of the most famous songs for artists, movies, video games, and commercials. 

Attracted by various sounds and inspired by world music, Pharrell's style has evolved and remains eclectic. He created his own lines of clothing, produced the movie Hidden Figures, and sponsored many philanthropical endeavors. Pharrell remains motivated to increase school graduation rates and increase the number of students who go to college to pursue their dreams.

Fans of music will appreciate Pharrell's hard work ethic and his dedication to being a mogul with a social conscience.

YouTube and Videos of Everything

Centore, Michael. YouTube and Videos of Everything. Part of the Tech 2.0: World-Changing Entertainment Companies series. 2019. 64p. ISBN 978-1-42224059-5. Available at 384.33 CEN on the library shelves.

The story of YouTube is the story of most wildly successful tech companies: A group of college friends realized there was a need for a service, created a business plan, started a company in a garage, programmed a website, and wrote history. For YouTube, three friends who worked together at PayPal before it was bought by eBay in 1998 reconnected a few years later and discovered they had difficulty sharing videos they had recorded. At the time, each device used a different format that required a different piece of software to decode and play. Creating a service that could handle different formats and display them seamlessly on the Internet would finally facilitate videos online

Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim invested their own money and time, and built a company called YouTube, designed to let anyone to post videos online. They released their beta site in May 2005, and immediately it was a success. The expansion of YouTube was accompanied with growing pains, as the founders needed to both figure a way to monetize their site as well as enforce copyright laws. Advertising crept in. By the end of 2006, YouTube was popular enough that Google spent 1.5 billion purchasing it and incorporating it in its suite of services. As it continued to expand, YouTube improved technology and created a whole new type of job, the YouTuber. It also has increased its reach, becoming the 2nd most popular website worldwide, right behind Google but ahead of Facebook.

The Post-Cold War

Maxim, Bailey, ed. The Post-Cold War. Part of the Political and Diplomatic History of the Modern World. 2017. 232p. ISBN 978-1-68048-357-4. Available at 909.83 POS on the library shelves.

The end of the Cold War brought about the hope that the deadly confrontation between the two superpowers would be replaced by an era of collaboration and peace. The dislocation of two mutually opposed alliances was replaced by a multipolar world in which mass terrorism and a return to nationalism flourished. Even as the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtains collapsed, danger arose when Iraq invaded its smaller neighbor Koweit in a bid to achieve leadership of the Arab nations. The United States assembled a coalition that fought and defeated the Iraqi army but left Saddam Hussein, the nation's dictator, in power. A true international effort, the First Gulf War marked the first and only instance of an overwhelming alliance of the world's countries against an aggressor.

Many other conflicts followed in the 1990s, as Yugoslavia disintegrated, genocide took place in Rwanda, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continued. Russia, which had lost most of the Soviet satellites, regained a more hostile attitude towards the West. A period of relative economic prosperity, the world overall experienced a decreased in armed conflicts. Then September 11, 2001 took place, and terrorists used airplanes to successfully destroyed the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon. The War on Terror thus drew the United States into involvement in Afghanistan, which became our longest military conflict. The hunt for terrorists and those who harbor them led the United States to invade Iraq in 2003. More conflict ensued, with tens of thousands killed and millions displaced.

An Arab Spring that successfully toppled two dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt spread to other Middle Eastern countries but were severely repressed. Syria imploded, and millions of refugees streamed into Europe. What had begun at the end of the Cold War as a hopeful time turned out to have generated more conflicts. Fans of history will appreciate the thoroughness of this volume and its concise yet precise descriptions of the world's history over the last twenty years.

Volumes in this series include:

• World War I
• World War II
• The Cold War
• The Post-Cold War

Lost Soul, Be at Peace

Trash, Maggie. Lost Soul, Be at Peace. 2018. 187p. ISBN 978-0-7636-9419-7. Available in the graphic novels section of the library.

Maggie Trash has always been different from her family. Her father is a Federal Court judge, while her mother is a socialite who spends time at galas and fundraisers. Her older brother has left for college, and Maggie finds their large house very empty. Only her cat Tommi keeps her somewhat sane, but even then Maggie thinks she might be better off if she were insane, because then she wouldn't worry about finding out who she really is.

Over the last year, Maggie has grown progressively more depressed. Her grades are failing, and she's drastically changed her hair color. Her parents didn't say a thing. They are too self-involved to even notice that Maggie is suffering on the inside. Now in 11th grade, Maggie is in danger of flunking high school. A year ago Maggie realized she likes girls. She came out at school, but nobody cared. She hasn't come out to her family yet, simply because she doesn't think they would care either. Since then, she's felt very lonely.

One night, Tommi goes missing inside the house. While searching for her, Maggie finds a door she had never seen before. It takes her to a rundown house with piles of trash laying about. Returning through the hallway, she finds a boy armed with a gun inside her home. The boy has no substance. She learns that his name is Tommy, that he's looking forward to go to college, but that he's worried that by leaving to pursue his future he will be damning his mother to more abuse at the hand of his father. Tommy doesn't know where he's from, or why he's haunting Maggie, but he's pretty sure there's something he needs to do.

As Maggie and Tommy search for the missing cat, truths will be revealed, but they may not be the answers Maggie was looking for.

Beautifully illustrated, this memoir recounts seminal events in the life of Maggie Trash and attempts to find the source of her depression. Novels dealing with self-discovery include When My Sister Started Kissing and All the Bright Places.

It's Kind of a Funny Story

Vizzini, Ned. It's Kind of a Funny Story. 2006. 444p. ISBN 0-7868-5197-X. Available both as FIC VIZ on the library shelves and as an ebook on Overdrive.

When he was a kid, Craig loved drawing maps. For over a year, fifteen-years-old Craig Gilner has been spending most of his time preparing for possible admission to Executive Pre-Professional, a highly selective and elite high school in New York City. And when he wasn't doing that, he was with his best friend Aaron, smoking pot and pinning for Nia, Aaron's girlfriend. With that being done, however, Craig suddenly finds himself at a loss. He's working hard at his school, but he's only scoring 93%, while Aaron, who doesn't even try, is still top of the class.

Unable to cope and lacking strategies that would help him get through, Craig develops suicidal thoughts and ends up developing an eating disorder. Caught in a vicious circle, Craig ends up checking himself into a psychiatric facility near his house. Lacking room in the juvenile wing, Craig is placed instead on the 6th floor with adults, and he begins dealing with the issues that led him here. Onsite, he meets the other patients, including Noelle, another teenager who severely maimed herself to deal with the abuse she was suffering. Can Craig reconnects with his life and achieve some stability?

A running commentary of the events leading to and including his hospitalization told from Craig's perspective, It's Kind of a Funny Story provides a hilarious yet sobering look at mental illness and the pressures that children and teenagers experience in competitive educational environments. Readers will be cheering Craig on as he works through his problems and hope that he and Noelle are able to tame each other on their way out of the psychiatric unit. Fans of An Abundance of Katherines will appreciate the messy resolution that occurs at the end of the story.

Wicked

Shepard, Sara. Wicked. Book 5 of the Pretty Little Liars series. 2009. 310p. ISBN 0-06-156610-1. Available at FIC SHE on the library shelves.

With the death of Mona and the arrest of Ian in Unbelievable, Aria, Emily, Hanna and Spencer thought they were in the clear. “A,” after all, had now disappeared along with all of their secrets. As the winter semester starts, the girls head back to Rosewood Day, hoping things to quiet down so they can go back to their lives. That hope is quickly dashed, however, when the girls begin receiving more texts from someone identifying themselves as “A.” This person is clearly spying on them and know of many intimate details.

Panicked, the girls begin to make mistakes. Kate, Hanna’s stepsister, tries to get closer to Hanna, but worried about being undermined by her gorgeous rival, Hanna balks and decides to stab her in the back before it’s too late. Emily has broken up with Maya, and now finds herself attracted to Isaac. What team is she on? Even Emily doesn’t know. Aria is attracted to an older man again, but Xavier, an artist, has begun dating her mother and is sending her mixed messages. Spencer is in purgatory when she discovers that her dead grandmother’s will gives $2 million to each of her natural grandchildren, but Spencer is not listed in the will. What secrets are harbored by her family?

As the girls struggle to regain their footing, A keeps undermining their efforts. With Ian’s escape from custody, is A getting ready to kill them to exact his revenge?

Unbelievable

Shepard, Sara. Unbelievable. Book 4 of the Pretty Little Liars series. 2008. 335p. ISBN 978-0-06-088741-4. Available at FIC SHE on the library shelves.

At the end of Perfect, Hanna was hit by a large black SUV driven by A, and was rushed to the hospital. Thankfully, the damage was minimal but Hanna’s pretty face is marred by the trauma she suffered, and she has no recollection of A’s identity. She reconciles with Mona, and they begin planning Hanna’s recovery with a party.

Caught in Maya’s company despite her parents’ warning, Emma is sent to live with her very religious aunt and uncle in rural Iowa, but she is immediately betrayed by her cousins who take her to a barn party only to rat her out as the instigator the very next morning. Emma runs away, but upon seeing her parents in tears on television begging her to return, she heads back home. A, however is still after her.

Aria is kicked out of Sean’s house for pursuing a relationship with her English teacher. Not welcomed at her mother’s house, she reluctantly moves with her father and his girlfriend, soon to be wife, Meredith, who is now pregnant with her father’s child. Wishing to escape her life, Aria takes an art class at the college where her father and Meredith work. She runs into Jenny, who was blinded by Alison, and whom Aria suspects is A.

Spencer’s entry into the golden orchid competition is really her sister Melissa. Spencer knows she has forgotten crucial details of Alison’s last night before her disappearance, and she suspects she might be responsible for her death.

With A now out for blood and getting more bold, the four friends have to watch out for each other as their lives increasingly spiral out of control.

Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen

Jennings, Jazz. Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen. 2016. 272p. 240 mins. ISBN 9780399554643. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

Born a boy, Jazz always knew that she really was a girl. She loved dressing up as a girl, even as a baby, and eventually convinced her parents it was not a phase. Jazz begin the transitioning process to become a girl at age five, at a time when there was no one to guide them through the process. Jazz and her family had to fight to access her favored bathroom, to overcome a misguided school dress code, and to fully be allowed to participate in organized sports like soccer.

As an advocate for transgendered youths, Jazz blazed the trail with interviews with Barbara Walters on the television show 20/20, and participated in several conferences as a panelist. Named as one of the youngest persons ever on Time’s top 100 people list, she met with President Obama, and was named as a youth ambassador by Human Rights Campaign. Active on Youtube and in several causes that fight to LGBTQ rights, Jazz is an inspiration for, as she says herself, just living her life.

A great tale of perseverance and acceptance, Jazz continues today to stand up for those who need it most and help teach what tolerance and true love really mean.

Perfect

Shepard, Sara. Perfect. Book 3 of the Pretty Little Liars series. 2008. 298p. ISBN 0-06-088738-9. Available at FIC SHE on the library shelves.

Toby’s suicide in Flawless did not solve the girls’ problems, as A is still sending them taunting messages. And everything has gone from bad to worse for Spencer, Aria, Emily and Hanna. After attacking her father’s mistress and marking her with a painted A after reading the Scarlet Letter, Aria is kicked out of her house by her mother, who didn’t think this action was the way to go. She now has to stay with her boyfriend Sean, but she remains drawn to Ezra, her English teacher.

Feeling remorseful over Toby’s suicide, Emily decides she will tell the police all about A and what has been happening to the girls. Sure, it will reveal their secrets, but then maybe the harassment will end. Unfortunately, A beats her to the punch and outs Emily and Maya’s relationship to the entire school during a swim meet, much to her parents’ chagrin. She now must go to a church program where her desires will be “normalized.”

In Flawless, Spencer had ran out of time to write a paper, being preoccupied by A and all, so she instead turned in one of Melissa’s old essay. Unfortunately, this essay has been submitted by her teacher for a prestigious prize. Her plagiarism is revealed, but her family agrees to hush the whole thing so Spencer does not disgrace them. However, in a fit of rage Spencer blanks out and hurts Melissa. When she comes to, she realizes that maybe she’s the one who did kill Alison in a fit of rage and simply blanked the event out of her memory.

Hanna, meanwhile, has a falling out with her best friend Mona, and loses her invitation to Mona’s party. Crashing the party with new friend Lucas, she is instead thoroughly humiliated. When her phone receives a message from A, Hanna finally sees her chance to end this torment. A made a mistake and Hanna recognizes the phone number. Eager to tell the other girls, she meets them outside. Unfortunately for all of them, A has not played all of her cards ...

The story continues in Unbelievable.

Flawless

Shepard, Sara. Flawless. Book 2 of the Pretty Little Liars series. 2007. 330p. ISBN 0-06-088735-4. Available at FIC SHE on the library shelves.

In middle school, Alison, Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer were at Alison’s house, and they decided to prank Toby Cavanaugh, the town creep and step-brother of their friend Jenna. Toby was always lighting fireworks, so Alison sneaks to Toby’s treehouse and releases a firecracker. Unfortunately, it burns the treehouse, and Jenna, who was inside, is permanently blinded.

Now juniors in high school, the girls are receiving strange messages from someone referring to themselves as A, who threatens to reveal all of their secrets. They suspect that it is Alison, who disappeared back in 7th grade, but in Pretty Little Liars, Alison was found dead beneath the concrete floor of a gazebo in her backyard. Her four former best friends were relieved, but they are still worried because A is out there, knowing all of their secrets.

When they realized that Toby, Jenna’s step-brother, has moved back to town, the girls think he’s the one going by the initial A. Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer keep receiving messages, and their personal lives are slowly degrading. And Toby seems to be everywhere they look. Meanwhile, Aria is still attracted to her Ezra, her English teacher, but when the secret that her dad and one of his graduate students are sleeping together comes out, her mother can’t forgive her. Spencer is still attracted to Wren, her older sister’s former boyfriend, and she travels to Philadelphia to meet with him several times. But her heart’s about to be broken. And Hanna reconnects with her father, who has ignored her for the last few years. On a weekend getaway, he surprises her with the presence of his new wife and stepdaughter. Hanna had a bad experience with her the last time, but this time both girls appear to be cool with each other. Emily is still unsure of whether she is gay. She’s attracted to Maya, but her parents frown upon this relationship because of Maya’s race. They don’t know their perfect daughter is a lesbian, so Emily once again attempts to date a boy, and she and Toby become an item.

With the stakes even higher, the girls all try to keep their secrets from each other, but A’s taunts force them to once again gather and attempt to solve this mystery. If is it indeed Toby pretending to be A, how can they stop him?

The story continues in Perfect.

Pretty Little Liars

Shepard, Sara. Pretty Little Liars. Book 1 of the Pretty Little Liars series. 2006. 286p. ISBN 0-06-088732-X. Available at FIC SHE.

Back in 7th grade, five girls were best of friends. Alison, Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer spent most of their time together. Of them all, however, Alison was the one who knew all of the secrets. She knew Emily liked girls. She knew Hanna vomited her meals. She knew Aria’s father was having an affair with one of his students at the Community College. She knew Spencer coveted her sister’s boyfriend. And then one day near the end of 7th grade, Alison vanished. The police looked everywhere for her, but she was never found. Eventually Alison’s parents sold their house and moved away, and the girls drifted apart.

Now juniors in high school, the four girls circulate in completely different social groups. Aria went to Iceland with her family for two years. Hanna has turned into a gorgeous bombshell. Emily is a star swimmer. Spencer’s about to move into her family barn, which has been retrofitted so she can live independently. They still think of Alison, but not as much as they used to. This changes when each of them starts receiving messages. Each girl thinks she’s the only one, and each message is more threatening than the next. Only one other person knows this information, but she’s been missing for more than three years. Is Alison back?

When Alison’s body is found in her backyard, the girls are once again reunited at the funeral, and they discover that each of them had been contacted. They now feel like they can breathe a sigh of relief, however, since Alison is no more, and their secrets are going to the grave with her, right? Why, then, are they still getting messages?

Beware the person who knows all of your secrets! Ending on a cliffhanger, the girls’ lives are about to change forever! Fans of realistic fiction with a hint of the paranormal will enjoy reading about the girls’ exploits and their tense psychological issues.

The story continues in Flawless.

George W. Bush

Zahensky, Kenneth, ed. George W. Bush. Part of the Profile in Leadership: Pivotal Presidents series. 2018. 80p. ISBN 978-1680486292. Available at B BUS on the library shelves.

The son of President George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush stood at the helm of the United States when the country was attacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001. His muscled and rapid response transformed the crisis into a victory in Afghanistan, but the subsequent decision to invade Iraq and poor government performance during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 hobbled his administration for the remainder of his second term.

Born after the Second World War, Bush went to college and entered the oil business in Texas. Opportunities presented themselves and he became a part-owner of the Texas Ranger, rebuilding the team and ensuring that it became competitive. He then parlayed his status as an acute and well-known businessman to the governorship of Texas, before running and winning a much contested Presidency in 2000 after Florida’s electoral college votes were handed to him by the Supreme Court.

Most Presidents are controversial and their policies are contested by the opposition, and Bush’s Presidency followed a similar pattern. To keep the country safe, measures were taken that violated Constitutional protections and rights, leading to protests and court defeats. Tax cuts were passed, which led to higher deficits. And the war on terror expanded. He also successfully appointed two new Supreme Court Justices, including Chief Justice Roberts, and he led a campaign against AIDS in Africa. Bush’s approach of compassionate conservatism demonstrated that it was possible to care for society while supporting core conservative principles.

Though the verdict is still out, Bush’s Presidency had a lasting impact on the United States and decisions taken over 15 years ago continue to influence national and international policies today. Fans of the Presidency or of recent history will appreciate this biography.

War Brothers: The Graphic Novel

McKay, Sharon E. & Daniel Lafrance. War Brothers: The Graphic Novel. 2013. 165p. ISBN 978-1-55451-488-5. Available at GFX MCK on the library shelves.

Uganda has been in the midst of a low-level civil war for decades. The Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA, has fought the central government more to promote its leader than to achieve any real ideological goals. Known for brutally recruiting and training child soldiers, the LRA operates out of several countries in central Africa, including Uganda and South Sudan.

Jacob is a happy fourteen-year-old student at a prestigious school near his hometown of Gulu, when he and his friends are abducted by the LRA and forced to become slaves. Tony, one of Jacob’s friend who was hoping to become a priest, is forced to violently kill one of his friends with a stick, and he therefore becomes a “soldier” in the LRA. He gains access to weapons and food, but in the process loses some of his humanity. Jacob and his friends Paul and Norman remain slave, unwilling or unable to join the killing. Moving through the bush, they never sleep in the same place, they never have enough food, and violence permeates their camp.

Throughout these trying times Jacob meets Hannah and Oteka. Hannah had her ears cut off and now she’s an outcast, good enough to serve food but little else. Oteka is older and was a medical student before being forcibly enrolled and becoming the camp’s cook. When Norman is selected to be killed, Jacob knows that he must act. With Hannah and Oteka’s help, Jacob decide they must escape this very night. With soldiers of the LRA hunting them down, and the jungles of Africa teaming with wildlife, can Jacob save everyone, including his friend Tony?

Based on true stories of a conflict that still continues to this day, Jacob’s graphic tale is reminiscent of Arn’s experience in Never Fall Down. Both are individuals finding themselves in dire circumstances but retain their humanity and never lose hope of surviving and escaping their current conditions.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Kamkwamba, William and Bryan Mealer. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. 2009. 273p. ISBN 0-06-173032-7. Available at B KAM on the library shelves.

Located in the southeastern part of Africa, Malawi is a relatively poor country. William Kamkwamba’s parents were poor farmers who struggled to make ends meet, but when a famine struck their country they could no longer afford to send William to school. Always eager to learn, William decided to go to the local library instead. There he read a book that changed his life. Titled Using Energy, this book gave William a great idea: Why not build a wind generator to create electricity for his house?

Working hard and scrounging parts throughout the area, William was able in 2002 to erect his own power-generating windmill, and suddenly his family was the only one in the village to have electric light at night. With this plentiful power William could recharge phones and radios, and started making money. Using the same principles, he build a water pump for his mother so she wouldn’t have to make the long round trip every day carrying cans of water.

Though his neighbors all thought he was crazy, William’s dedication and drive to succeed helped him earn international fame through a TED talk and scholarship opportunities to study, first in Malawi, then at Dartmouth College. It also improved the lives of his village’s residents, and proved that it is possible to find solutions to problems that appear intractable.