Uri Cohen's Reviews > Marvelous Cornelius: Hurricane Katrina and the Spirit of New Orleans

This biopicbook (biography picture book) begins with the great quote from Martin Luther King Jr. about doing your best at your job even if you're a street sweeper. (The quote is from this speech.)

The reader meets Cornelius, a well-liked sanitation worker in New Orleans who did his job enthusiastically, singing and dancing. After "the storm," Cornelius almost despaired – it would take thousands, millions of people to clean up the city! But he started, and lots of people joined in – not just locals but thousands, millions of people from all over. The book concludes, "As the great city rose again, Marvelous Cornelius, he passed on. But as for his spirit, that's part of New Orleans, New Orleans forever after."

In the back of the book, the author explains how he heard about Cornelius Washington and decided to make him larger than life. "Cornelius's story has the flavor of folktales and folk heroes like John Henry, and by incorporating repetition, alliteration, and exaggeration, I have tried to honor those qualities in the telling." Well done!