January 2024 – ’83 Days in Mariupol: A War Diary’
I think that we can discover a few valuable new titles just by delving into the Missouri Dogwood lists. For this blog entry, I want to look at a high school entry, 83 Days in Mariupol: A War Diary. This is a “graphic nonfiction” book, written and illustrated by Don Brown. Although it’s not a standard narrative, I believe that the author displays magnificent storytelling abilities while moving through the series of events chronologically. He also wastes no time placing blame squarely on the Russian authoritarian regime. From the aspect of illustration, Brown uses stark black and white illustrations. Their intent and effect is very plain. The written narrative is also very powerful. Although I’m not very fond of the use of sentence fragments, they make their point very succinctly. (Even so, please teach our kids to communicate in complete sentences!)
The reviewer in SLJ notes that this is “history in progress.” I’m in full agreement. This is a key piece of nonfiction for high school collections as well as home book collections for the home. Please use the link above to purchase your own copy!