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

Commemorating 9/11 two decades after the tragedy, Sibert Honoree Brown (The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees) offers a visual recollection of Sept. 11, 2001 that both humanizes and poignantly remembers an overwhelming chapter in U.S. history, portraying the experiences of real individuals who lived through the attacks and their aftermath. Sourced extensively from news articles, documentaries, and reports, the quotes and harrowing, accessibly worded stories of survivors, first responders, volunteers, and soldiers are rendered in evocative, muted black lines and washes of watercolor. Panels adeptly guide and sustain reader attention, with perspectives or subject matter shifting as intensity builds. Two-thirds of the graphic novel centers New York City on and around September 11, though accounts from the Pentagon attack and Shanksville plane crash are included. Notable is Brown’s ability to depict, in this economical format, the event’s wide-ranging aftereffects, including Islamophobia, the physical and mental health toll on workers dismantling “the Pile,” and U.S. soldiers ending up on horseback in Afghanistan. An afterword provides updates through 2019, while additional back matter offers a heartbreaking read of the demographic statistics of victims, as well as an eight-page bibliography. Ages 12–up. (Aug.)