Starred Review ALA Booklist

Starred Review Throughout his career, Brown has covered many historical events ptember 11th, the Dust Bowl, Hurricane Katrina. His newest on the war in Ukraine feels different. Here Brown reports on the people of Mariupol as they resist the invading Russian army while desperately fleeing from the conflict. Brown lets his images do most of the talking, perhaps partially because not that much information is available yet due to the ongoing nature of the conflict. But it also feels as if Brown, who has documented some of history's saddest moments, is at a loss for words, that a war as vicious and pointless as this could still happen. His artwork feels rougher in comparison to previous works. His sketch-heavy style, a signature throughout his career, feels more raw than usual stroyed buildings and bodies lying on the street are captured through scrawling pen marks, at times even scribbling subjects like a dismembered child or a bombed-out shelter. Though his book is as approachable as ever, his story is bleak yet unapologetic, telling the tragic stories of the survivors that escaped and those not so lucky. Bolstered with robust source notes, this is a flawless book about a senseless atrocity.

School Library Journal Starred Review (Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Gr 9 Up— No punches are pulled in this stark, unflinching diary of the siege on Mariupol by Russian forces sent by Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022. The brutality and senselessness of war are front and center in this work of graphic nonfiction. The diary opens with important history about the region and Putin's true intentions. Brown, known for his intense, well-documented nonfiction, and working in a muted palette, uses black and white this time to great effect. The relentless gray panels accentuate the crushing burdens of bombings and attacks on normal life. Panel sizes and close-ups bring immediacy to the atrocities of war, while quotes from those present, sourced in the back matter, are included in speech bubbles. Civilians are targeted and gunned down and left in the streets. Water and electricity stop. Those residents who cannot flee hole up in the Azovstal steel plant using WWII bunkers. Eventually, the Ukrainian forces must fall back there themselves. Civilians continue to try to escape. On May 17, 2022, the Ukrainian forces, despite Herculean efforts, surrendered. The brutal siege killed 20,000 civilians and destroyed 90 percent of the city. The afterword, set in January 2023, paints the current picture of U.S. and NATO support. Putin attempts to break the resolve of the Ukrainians by targeting hospitals, housing, and water and electrical plants. There is no happy rebuilding story to make readers feel better. VERDICT An important piece of history in progress is captured here, and readers will not fail to be moved. An important purchase for high school libraries.— Elisabeth LeBris

Horn Book (Thu Oct 03 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Here's a rare chronicle of a contemporary, ongoing war. This comic-format "war diary" isn't told from the viewpoint of any one person, although individual perspectives are plentifully represented and woven throughout the narrative in a cohesive fashion. Rather, it's the diary of Mariupol, a port city situated on the far eastern edge of Ukraine. A prologue recounts the shared history of Ukraine and Russia. The narrative then plunges into Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and the eighty-three-day siege of Mariupol. Using a spare, understated text that synthesizes basic facts and primary-source quotes, Brown relies on his pen-and-ink and digital paint illustrations to do the heavy lifting of conveying what it's like to live in a war zone. The composition of the panel layouts, the sketchiness of the illustrations, and the black, white, and gray color palette all serve this purpose. The siege wears on, and things go from bad to worse. As the end appears imminent, the resistance retreats to a sprawling steel plant for their last stand and eventual surrender on May 17. By then, ninety percent of the city has been destroyed and twenty thousand civilians killed. An afterword discusses the unfinished business of the war and the legacy of the siege. This powerful work of graphic nonfiction concludes with source notes and a bibliography.

Kirkus Reviews

A harrowing account of Ukrainian civilians and their defenders during the 2022 Russian attack and occupation of Mariupol.In February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in opposition to international norms and agreements, falsely claimed that ethnic Russians in Ukraine were being persecuted and the country needed "denazification" as a premise for invasion. The port city of Mariupol came under attack days later. Through reports from eyewitnesses, the nightmarish realities of war come alive on the pages. Various aspects of the siege on Mariupol are covered, including Ukrainian reactions, desperate attempts to get to safety, and the last stand at the Azovstal steel plant, where over 3,000 people, civilians and soldiers alike, took shelter. The fighting was bloody and intense, with no hope for escape or help, but the Ukrainians stayed the course until forced to surrender in May 2022. The book doesn't shy away from presenting the horrors of war-mass graves, rape, child death-and the plight of civilians trying to survive freezing temperatures without heat, electricity, water or food. However, its thoughtful, intentional approach and the muted, monochromatic, sketchlike art that conveys emotional impressions more than graphic, gory details help to convey the traumatic events in a way that teen readers can absorb. The plight of non-White Ukrainian residents who faced discrimination both within the country as they attempted to flee and from other countries where they sought refuge is mentioned.Succinct, effective storytelling combined with haunting art. (map, source notes, bibliography) (Graphic nonfiction. 14-18)

Publishers Weekly

Brown (In the Shadow of the Fallen Towers) urgently captures the harsh realities of the war in Ukraine in this viscerally illustrated work. Via a brief prologue, Brown explains the complicated, thousand-year history of the former Slavic kingdom that was once the “cradle for both Ukraine and Russia,” and asserts as false Russian president Vladimir Putin’s claims that he was defending Russian peoples from “being terrorized... for the denazification of Ukraine.” In a rapidly paced first chapter, Brown details how, on Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022, Ukrainians woke to widespread bombing throughout the nation, most heavily in the Russian border region of Donbas. While many managed to flee to safety, numerous residents of Mariupol were trapped by Russian forces. Subsequent chapters read as a war diary that outlines the 83-day occupation of Mariupol, as Ukrainian soldiers and residents combat the Russian military. This siege, Brown writes, would later serve as a “rallying cry of a people’s resolve.” Brown pulls no punches in this harrowing portrayal of the brutal violence and suffering endured by Mariupol’s citizens, depicting sexual assault as well as a lack of food, water, heat, electricity, and medical care in loosely detailed, sketchlike illustrations washed in charcoal. Ages 14–up. (May)