This book is part of the New York Times bestselling series “I survived”. The series tells stories of kids who survived natural disasters or other historical dangerous events. The series is directed at kids in late elementary school. I decided to read the graphic novel adaptation of this book because this is a format I enjoy, and I wanted to see how the images of the hurricane were portrayed.
The story features the main character Barry, a school-aged boy who lives in New Orleans with his parents and his toddler sister. I really loved Barry as a character. He is a good brother, loves superheroes and drawing, and seems like an overall genuine and relatable young boy. Barry's family knows a hurricane is coming, but it is explained that many hurricanes have come and gone without major disaster. Barry doesn’t think this will be a big deal. I appreciated this explanation because I do not live in an area that experiences hurricanes. However, this hurricane becomes very different from the other hurricanes Barry remembers. An evacuation is ordered, but the roads are backed up and Barry’s sister gets sick, so they turn around and wait out the storm at home. When the levees break, water quickly floods the neighborhood, and Barry becomes stranded. He discovers the superhero inside of him to guide him and his neighbor’s dog find safety.
The events featured in these books can be scary for children, with Hurricane Katrina being no exception. However, I appreciated that the topic was handled without watering down the seriousness of what happened. It is acknowledged that Barry and his family are some of the lucky ones, and that many people did not survive or find their families after the hurricane. I also really like themes of believing in yourself, being persistent even in the face of fear, and how your impressions of people might be different from reality. The tie-in at the end of the superhero introduced in the beginning of the story felt like a full-circle moment for Barry. Another great touch was the nonfiction section at the end of the book which, still in graphic novel form, explained the events of Hurricane Katrina from a scientific perspective.
I could see this book being used for many different purposes in the upper elementary classroom. Because the book is historical fiction, it lends itself to discussing real life events but also incorporates the literary elements of character development, plot, central message, and more. As with any historical book, I feel that supplementing it with nonfiction materials about the time period or event is helpful for students to see how the story connects (or differs from) reality. In this book, the nonfiction section in the back helps with this purpose. But adding more real-life articles, interviews, photographs, or even science texts about hurricanes in general would be a great addition to this text. Students could use these to determine how true to the actual events the historical fiction text is. Determining which parts are fiction and which parts actually happened is an important skill in this genre. In this case, even with how dramatic the story feels, I feel that it is very consistent with what real people actually experienced in this traumatic event.