Flooded

September 1, 2020
In first-person free verse, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, residents comment on their lives and dreams before and after the catastrophic flood of 1889. The six main voices in the cast are younger than those in Jame Richards' similarly versified account, Three Rivers Rising (2010)--at least until the aftermath, when Andrew Carnegie and other members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, two survivors who unsuccessfully sued them for damages, Red Cross founder Clara Barton, and, most poignantly, unidentified (but perhaps previously met) victims chime in. Burg invents some characters, but everyone given a first and last name is historical, and she takes such pains to describe the flood's direct causes and actual events in the poems that her appended note seems superfluous. The expressed feelings and words are all her own, though, and if most of the speakers sound more like mouthpieces than distinct individuals, both the intensity of the tragedy and a sense of outrage that the negligent parties escaped punishment come through clearly. Except for the personified river's contributions, which are nature notes cast into solemn, italicized streams of one- to three-word lines, everyone's mildly elevated language and cadence sound so much alike that without the identifying labels it's hard to tell one from another. Still, readers will come away with a clear idea of the flood's causes, perpetrators, and shocking toll. An absence of descriptors points to a White default. Moving, though more about the disaster itself than its human cost. (Verse historical fiction. 11-13)

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 30, 2020

GR 4 UP-In 1889, Johnstown, Pennsylvania was a mix of Civil War veterans, immigrants, and coal and steel miners, whose families and children were looking toward the future. Everyone was planning for Decoration Day. Little Gertrude Quinn was thrilled that her older brother had saved her the last flag from their father's store, William James was madly editing his first original poem which he would recite in front of the entire town, while Joe Dixon planned to propose to his sweetheart Maggie. Through the rain, flags waved, songs were sung and the veterans' parade filled the town with both pride and strength, but the rain kept coming. Within a few hours, Johnstown and its residence would never be the same. Stunning, significant and sorrowful, Ann E. Burg's requiem melts history into prose. Brimming with sensory imagery and cadence that breathe life back into the 1889 disaster, this novel in verse serenades readers with multiple, yet personal voices of youth depicting daily life in Johnstown before and after the historic flood. Readers will quickly become connected to real life characters, empathetically curious of their fate. Through significant research and written testimony, Burg provides insight to the aftermath and unearths South Fork Dam's faulty structure and the liability of its prestigious Fishing and Hunting Club. The novel's artistry makes use of faded text to give voice after death to main characters as well as anonymous victims. Budding historians will be intrigued with new perspectives on prominent figures such as Clara Barton, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay. VERDICT Highly recommended as a tragically engaging, poetic account of the 1889 disaster, which will leave an impression upon its readers.-Mary-Brook J. Townsend, The McGillis Sch., Salt Lake City

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.