Module 13 - The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation

Citation: Colon, E., & Jacobson, S. (2006). The 9/11 report: a graphic adaption. New York, NY: Hill and Wang.

Book Summary: The authors of this book took the massive 9/11 Report and made it more easily accessible for readers by putting it into a graphic novel.  The original report is so lengthy that it is not likely that many readers would be able to make it though the report.  This graphic novel provides much of the same information as is in the original report, many times using the same words, but it is much shorter and in a format that is less daunting than the 500+ page report. 

My Impressions: The authors of this book did a great job on condensing the 9/11 Report and putting it into a format that can be easily read and understood by the common citizen.  The events of September 11, 2001 had a big impact on our country, and I think the authors have done a great thing by writing about the events in a reader-friendly format.  The illustrations are good and help tell the story.

Professional Review: Adult/High School --At only 15 percent the size of The 9/11 Report: The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (St. Martin's, 2004) and more than four times the price, is this adaptation worth purchasing? The answer is an unequivocal yes. Jacobson and Colón intend this adaptation to bring to the commission's report readers who would not or could not digest its nearly 800 pages, and they have the blessing, acknowledged in this book's foreword, of the commission's chair and vice-chair to do so. Neither lurid nor simplistic, it presents the essence of the commission's work in a manner that, especially in the opening section, is able to surpass aspects of any text-only publication: the four stories of the doomed flights are given on the same foldout pages so that readers can truly grasp the significance of how simultaneous events can and did overwhelm our national information and defense systems. The analysis that follows in the subsequent 11 chapters cuts cleanly to the kernels of important history, politics, economics, and procedural issues that both created and exacerbated the effects of the day's events. Colón's full-color artwork provides personality for the named players-U.S. presidents and Al-Qaeda operatives alike-as well as the airline passengers, office workers, fire fighters, and bureaucrats essential to the report. This graphic novel has the power and accessibility to become a high school text; in the meantime, no library should be without it.

Goldsmith, F. (2006, June). [Review of the book The 9/11 report: A graphic adaptation by E. Colon and S. Jacobson]. School Library Journal, 52(12), 176-176. Retrieved from www.schoollibraryjournal.com

Library Uses: This would be a good book to read with a book club and discuss the events that took place on that day.  After reading, the librarian could bring in a survivor of the 9/11 tragedies to do a presentation and answer any questions students might have about the events surrounding that day.