Book: The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation

"The 9/11 Commission believes the 9/11 attacks revealed four kinds of failure: in imagination, in policy, in capabilities, and in management."

- The 9/11 Report, pg 107

I remember watching 9/11 happen on the school TV screen in my U.S. history class. It was something that was so surreal to me at the time.  I even remember my favorite teacher just standing there, silent, as he and all of the students sat starring at the small TV screen in the corner of the room. Years later while in college, I found myself in a U.S. government class where I was assigned to read The 9/11 Commission Report. The book was huge...about 586 pages of information.  Luckily, the professor only assigned various chapters in the book for essay assignments.  The read itself was not as terrible as I had thought it would be.  In fact, I remember feeling sad and fascinated by all the new information I was exposed to.

Photo Credit: Fleeing the Fire, by Jose Jimenez, Primera Hora/Getty Images 

Some years later, I won a poster contest in class and received The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon as one of my prizes.  Up until that point, I had never really paid attention to graphic novels, unless it was anything related to Batman or reading a compilation comic book, such as Calvin and Hobbes.  I remember reading a few pages of The 9/11 Report and then putting it on my bookshelf, telling myself I would read it later.  There it sat until recently when I made it a goal of mine to finish all the books I had, but had not bothered to finish.

The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaption is basically a short and simplified version of the actual The 9/11 Commission Report, complimented with pictures.  It reviews events that led up to 9/11 and it examines problems or miscalls by government agencies that could have led to the prevention of the incident.  The graphic novel then ends with recommendations made by the 9/11 commission to prevent similar disasters such as this one from happening again.

I must admit that similar to The 9/11 Commission Report, the graphic novel has a somber feel to it.  It was like reliving through parts of 9/11 again and connecting it to what I remember happening in real life.  The worst part was that I couldn't just close the book and dismiss it as simply a work of fiction, there to entertain me.  It was reality and the people represented in there were those people who had lost their lives thanks to the heinous act of a few people.  The 9/11 Report  is a great way to expose younger readers to 9/11, yet it's also a good read for those who don't like to read or are frightened by the sheer size of the thicker commission report.  The forward written by the chair and vice chair of the 9/11 Commission provides even more credibility to the graphic novel and the pictures give a realistic view of the events. I particularly liked how the authors created separate timelines of the planes (flight 11, 175, 77, and 93) taking off and how they placed these timelines next to each other, helping readers to compare them side by side.  It was a great way of allowing readers to see the whole picture, rather than just parts of it at a time. Overall,  The 9/11 Report is well-paced and simply presents information, rather than pushing any agenda.  A good read, which I wished I had read sooner.

Photo Credit: Spencer Platt, Getty Images

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Extra info: AvaxNews has a small, yet moving collection of 9/11 pictures, some which I have not seen previously myself.  Check it out if you're interested.