 |
Reviewed by: Julianne Westrich, Elementary School Librarian Title: Ground Zero Author: Alan Gratz Publisher: Scholastic, Inc. Year: 2021 Good for Grades: 4-7 Genre/Type of Book: Historical Fiction/ Dual Timeline Content Warnings, or things that other School Librarians should be aware of: Realistic depictions of violence, war, terrorism. Recommended for a school library: Yes Reason(s) for choosing the book: I visited the 9/11 Memorial over the Thanksgiving weekend and am now in a deep dive to read just about anything I can get my hands on about that day, particularly materials that focus on interpreting the events for students who were not alive at the time. If you were tasked by the publisher with writing a short quote for the back cover of this book, what would it be: Two children, twenty years apart, each impacted the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center struggle to make sense of this day. |
Review:
When nine year old Brandon is suspended from school he must spend the day with his father at work - at the Windows on the World restaurant on the 106th floor of the World Trade Center's North tower. This clear September day will be like no other, and as Brandon sneaks down to the shops below the building to buy a present for a friend he finds himself in the center of the worst terrorist attack in history. Brandon's story recounts that day from inside the building as he struggles to survive.
The story alternates with that of 11 year old Reshmina, a girl living in rural, mountainous Afghanistan nearly 20 years later as she encounters a US soldier who is injured and must make difficult choices that could be dangerous for her family and mark them as enemies of the powerful Taliban.
This book was well crafted and thoughtfully executed. Brandon's story, while seemingly impossible, is told with painful detail and depicts events in the towers that we know now to have actually happened. *Warning* Brandon witnesses significant horrors (references to people falling/jumping, a woman is badly burned, the courtyard littered with bodies/body parts) - and Gratz does not shy away from the reality of that day. Although Brandon does make it out of the towers, his father does not. There is nothing in the story that is gratuitous violence, and everything is told through Brandon's perspective with shock, horror, and fear. Gratz does an excellent job of accuracy as well as tone.
I wasn't so sure about Reshmina's part of the story, but came to feel it was an essential component for students who did not live through 9/11 to grapple with the issues that came out of that day. Why did we invade Afghanistan? What connection did it have to 9/11? How does war impact ordinary people living ordinary lives of survival when they don't even understand why the war is happening? As so much of 9/11 history is told in a very American-centric perspective Reshmina' experience provides a much needed counter to the traditional narrative. It provides a context to discuss difficult choices, and complicated repercussions of an act so traumatic that more than 20 years later it is still being dealt with.
I would recommend this for a bookclub, student research group, or for a reader who wants to learn about hard history, both the difficult to hear about but also the difficult to grapple with - the complicated balance between revenge and refuge, and the impacts of violence and war on ordinary citizens.
This is not an easy book to deal with and Gratz shows both sides of a complicated story without providing any answers, allowing readers to make their own conclusions, and perhaps to understand that nothing is 100% right or wrong.
Number of party hats:
Find this video and other resources for Ground Zero at Teachingbooks.net
For more information about this book, see the Publisher's Website
Find this title in your BOCES Sora Collection: