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Mar 11, 2009

James rated it:

An excellent job with a few flaws - some key factors that weren't mentioned or were glossed over, e.g. the way that a number of Bin Laden's family were flown out of the U.S. while civilian flights were grounded. Still, the idea of presenting the content of the 9/11 Commission's report in this graphic novel format is ingenious and the execution very well done, a better job of presenting a mass of detail and maintaining an appropriate tone than I anticipated.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 13, 2010

Julia rated it:

From 8:46 on the morning of September 11th, America completely changed. Two hijacked fuel-filled planes crashed into the twin towers, killing thousands of lives and injuring many people. After the second plane hit (flight 175) we were positive that this tragic scheme was no accident.
What is the history behind it? Who did it? Why would anyone ever do something so horrible? Why would someone care so much about killing Americans that they didn't mind getting killed in the process? These are More...

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Nov 17, 2009

Parka rated it:

(More pictures at parkablogs.com)

Never before have I seen a nonfiction book as beautifully and compellingly written and illustrated as The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation. I cannot recommend it too highly. It will surely set the standard for all future works of contemporary history, graphic or otherwise, and should be required reading in every home, school and library. - Stan Lee

I'm equally as impressed as Stan Lee. This graphic novel is fantastic work. It's a More...

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Jul 01, 2009

htanzil rated it:

Enam tahun telah berlalu sejak gedung World Trade Center New York dihantam dua pesawat dan runtuh pada 11 September. Masih segar dalam ingatan kita ketika Presiden George W. Bush begitu geram dan menyatakan perang terhadap terorisme. Setahun lebih setelah serangan terror ini, Bush membentuk komisi Nasional Serangan Teroris ke Amrika Serikat. Komisi yang beranggotakan 10 orang ini kemudian dikenal sebagai “Komisi 9/11” atau "Kean/Zelikow Commission"

Komisi 9/11 bekerja selama More...

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May 02, 2011

Kim rated it:

Don't be fooled by the "graphic novel" bit. This is still a dense book with a lot of reading. What I was especially pleased about was the detailed history given about the events leading up to 9/11, and how we ended up where we did. For example, I had no idea that bin Laden was a target as far back as the Clinton administration, and that Clinton explicitly warned Bush about the danger than bin Laden presented.

What I especially didn't like was reading about the many, many mi More...

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Dec 13, 2009

Litgrrrl rated it:

The concept for this graphic novel was great -- take the massive 9/11 report; illustrate it; pare it down to the basic need-to-know info about the history leading up to 9/11, the major players, who to blame and why, etc. . . .

But the execution lacked efficient organization and, often, strong writing. When someone takes a nonfiction subject and uses the graphic novel as the medium through which to illuminate that subject, usually the goal is to make things less muddled, not more.
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Jan 28, 2009

Dan rated it:

A good book, but better certainly as an example of presenting information in graphic novel form than anything else. It begins with a strong narrative describing how Bin Laden and the hijackers organized and carried out the 911 attacks, and the US intelligence/political failings that made their success possible.

The book has its own failings as well. I've read hundreds of graphic novels of all genres, and I found this one most difficult to follow. The dense layout, busy with text, More...

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Sep 13, 2009

John rated it:

The 9/11 Commission Report is probably something every American should read. The PDF is here: http://www.9-11commission.gov/

But if you are interested in something perhaps a bit more accessible, then you should read The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation. It does an excellent job of building a time line of events for all four airliners involved in the terrorist attacks, sketching out the details of how the hijackers prepared themselves, and the reaction of various government department More...

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May 23, 2009

Ali rated it:

This graphic novel, which I ran into in the comics section of my local bookstore today, is astoundingly simplistic and generally, badly done. It is a dry and weak chapter-for-chapter adaptation of the 9/11 Commission Report, and has little merit apart from an unusually moving chapter on first responders. There are a lot of things a graphic novel can accomplish that a block of text cannot, but this is an awful misuse of a form that makes elegant and exceptional storytelling possible. This is a More...

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Mar 03, 2011

Dan rated it:

This is a valuable synthesis of the notorious 9/11 comissioner report. Reduced to around 100 pages and presented in graphic novel form, this resource increases the accessibility of this important document. Not only does the report document the events that took place on 9/11, it also offers a historical account of the formation of Al Queda, anti-American sentiment, and communication failures that prevented the recognition of the terrorist plot in the works.
While the graphic novel format wi More...

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Jun 04, 2009

Zack rated it:

I'm tempted to give this four instead of three stars, but pretty pictures can't make up for frustrating reading. Let me start by saying he art is good throughout, the characters are aptly rendered, and the colour is great. The only problem, for me, was the suspicion that perhaps the 9/11 Commission Report doesn't lend itself to graphic adaptation in the first place. It's a pretty clear example of telling, not showing. The amount of text jammed onto a page is pretty large, and the art doesn't alw More...

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Dec 17, 2009

Katie rated it:

It was a little hard to get through, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn't used to reading comics. Overall though it's VERY interesting and communicates information to a reading base who might not get the message otherwise- like me : )

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 30, 2011

Wurmo rated it:

I have to admit, reading 'The 9/11 Commission Report' was not in my future. A little to vast and dry a document/book for my mind to take in via book form, no matter how interesting the information may be. This graphic novel treatment, however, was just what the doctor ordered. It provides the overall information from the original report in a much more digestible format -- one that I read in two days on the bus. It seems to me that this graphic novel treatment would be an amazing way to bring inf More...

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Aug 16, 2009

John rated it:

Great synopsis of the findings of the 9/11 Commission. This is a HIGHLY condensed, graphical telling of the events that lead up to 9/11, as well as the recommendations of the Commission to prevent another such catastrophe from happening. I read this version for two reasons: first, to better understand the events of 9/11 and second, because the I thought the idea for presenting the commission report in a graphic novel (read: comic book) was very intriguing, and I wanted to satisfy my curiousity. More...

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Jun 14, 2010

Anna rated it:

I thought it might be fun to switch it up a little with my non-fiction and try it in graphic form (seems how I have been loving the graphic novels). It was actually a nice change and distracted me a bit from just the hardcore dryness of non-fiction. The report was about 9/11 and I really do feel like I learned a lot from this book that I didn't know before... history before 9/11, consequences surrounding 9/11, etc. The book, though non-fiction, did present some pretty strong biases. The most com More...

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Dec 08, 2010

Emily rated it:

The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation by Sid Jacobsen
Genre: graphic novel, Nonfiction
What a great way to synthesize all the complex and chronology of what happened on September 11th and how it came about. It outlines the timeline of the planes on 9/11 and then analyzes how it could have been prevented and discusses how much the government and military knew. It doesn't point fingers in a negative way, but is a truthful analysis of how this could have happened. It also gives a basic unde More...

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Apr 06, 2009

Oren rated it:

Heard about this when it came out and thought this would probably be the only way I read the 911 Commission report. I've recently seen a printed version of the official 911 report. Its size reinforced my original thought.

The graphic adaptation was exactly the read for which I'd hoped. The parallel timeline of the four planes in the beginning was a well chosen method due to its effectiveness in bringing clarity to the complicated series of events.

The history set-up is obvio More...

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Apr 19, 2010

Sarah rated it:

I honestly can't imagine reading the full commission report. I had trouble staying focused on the details provided in this version of the report. It was not only pretty boring, but depressing to read about how much information was available before the attacks. I think the graphic format does make it easier to understand the information presented, but I'm not certain that the report could truly be accessible to most people in any format. I read this for a youth literature course and I must say th More...

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Nov 05, 2010

Jennifer rated it:

This book was very interesting. I'm new to Graphic Novels and didn't realize there were some non-fiction ones. I would never sit down and read the full 9/11 Commission report but this was a nice summary - even if written in an unfamiliar format. I did find myself struggling to keep everything straight and while the Graphic format was a part of this I really believe that most of my confusion is a reflection of the actual confusion surrounding 9/11 and preceding events. This was a great way to More...

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Jun 05, 2010

Martha rated it:

A must read for every American. An excellent summary of the 9/11 Panel's findings without the 1000-plus pages of the original report issued by the Panel. The illustrations are concise and serious; no "comic book" feel at all. I first heard about this book when the authors were interviewed on NPR; I was impressed with how they took this project seriously and how they felt very strongly that they needed to make the most critical information accessible to as many people as possible.
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Oct 24, 2011

Mike rated it:

The goal of this book was to try to make The 9/11 Report accessible to a larger number of readers. Sid and Ernie had tried to read it when it came out and realized just how much information is in there and how much of a shame it would be if regular citizens would stay away from it. This project was hatched to fill that need and to hopefully be used as some kind of teaching tool so students would understand the history and need of changes.[return][return]To that end, this goal is definitely reach More...

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Nov 18, 2008

Elizabeth rated it:

I read about this book in The New Yorker, so when I saw on the shelves of The Baltimore Chop, a bookstore I felt obliged to patronize, I picked it up.

What happened? Could we have prevented it? Could we have responded better when it did happen? What lessons can we draw from it?

These are the questions the 9/11 Commission set out to answer in their 600-page report that, surprisingly enough, not many people read. Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon concluded that it was More...

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Sep 16, 2010

Alex rated it:

THE 9/11 REPORT: A GRAPHIC ADAPTATION BY SID JACOBSON AND ERNIE COLON: Naturally, this graphic adaptation has been getting a lot of flack from different people related to the September 11th attacks, because they still feel that comics are for a child’s enjoyment, to entertain and encourage a child’s humor, and they don’t know that in some ways they can do more than books in both informing through words and explaining through art. Sometimes a lot more can be said through a picture with words.
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Oct 21, 2007

Nicholas added it

http://nhw.livejournal.com/723209.html[return][return]A few things jumped out at me differently on reading this version. I didn't remember the original making such a strong point of the non-involvement of Iraq and Hezbollah in the events of 9/11. The key passage about the FBI agent who speculated that someone might fly a plane into the World Trade Centre has been toned down. But the utter confusion among the US top leadership on the morning of the attacks is even better portrayed in graphical fo More...

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Sep 22, 2010

Fee rated it:

This book sucked like a hooker on craigslist. First off the art was as good as the exit and oxygen tutorials you find on an airplane. The whole book was like someone writing to you how they banged your wife or girlfriend using stick figures for visuals. 9/11 was a bad deal, bad guys won. I don't need to know how stupid these poons behaved when they got to America before they banged our country in the corn hole. Mission accomplished, don't bore me with your weak illustrations and your dry fac More...

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Aug 01, 2011

Meadow rated it:

I read anything I can on 9/11. So when I saw this I thought it might be a neat difference comopared to the normal books on it. And it was very different.

It had a LOT of detail. I was shocking to see how long the terrorists had been planning and even doing smaller attacks, even in the USA!

It was trying to condense volumes of information into a small graphic novel, so at some points you just felt lost or very confused. But overall it was a great way to learn about what happ

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Mar 26, 2009

Kara rated it:

Our 21st century Kennedy assassination, with the added horror that thousands died instead of just one. The most amazing thing about the history of 9/11 as we know it today is that the terrorists were not using box cutters. They were using real guns and knives, because that's how easy it was to smuggle super-dangerous things onto planes at that time. The whole box cutter thing was a PR cover-up by the airlines. Rough reading, but pretty hard to be an American without it.

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May 04, 2011

Alexandria rated it:

This graphic novel attempts to reach a wider audience and educate readers about what's in the 9-11 report. The graphic novel includes a timeline of the events that happened on that day, as well as the history of Al Qaeda, the conclusion of after the attacks, as well as the conversations from the Bush administration cabinet. While the graphics are not the best and the text isn't that well organized it is still a must read to be educated on the 9-11 attacks without reading the thick government r More...

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Jun 27, 2011

Kelsey rated it:

i'm really glad i was able to read this. it really opened my eyes to what really happened on 9/11. i thought i knew it all-al qaeda attacked us, it was sad, &that's it. this really does a good job of explaining what happened before, during, and after the attack. the illustrations were really helpful in seeing how things played out, as well as the timeline of the day. it was very informative!

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Jun 01, 2008

Ruby rated it:

I am this book's target audience, as this is the only way I would have read the 9/11 Report.

Certain parts of the book felt very successful to me. For example, the timeline of the events on 9/11, in which the four planes involved were followed separately, but all on the same page. By reading through this timeline, the failures of NORAD, the airlines, and the FAA were illustrated, not explained.

Other parts, like the analysis of the conclusions of the Commission, were less r More...

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