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amengelking's review
5.0
A great start to our summer family book club! Lots to talk about and memories to share.
jlc22's review
5.0
Simple yet moving story about this tragic day uniquely told from an adolescent’s perspective. Read it pretty quick as it was well written and captivating.
hricarte's review
4.0
An often times emotional read, as expected for a novel written about 9/11 but also compelling in the big and small events that occur in this debut novel. The chapters are short and dated, reading like a journal and offer perspectives of Alex as he turns eleven on the most tragic day in our history, The Man in the White Shirt who is caught in the terror and devastation of the World Trade Center attacks, and Mac, an old man waiting for good news that may never come. Their stories collide in a bittersweet conclusion.
drtlovesbooks's review
3.0
Original: My school is doing a One Read, where everyone in the school reads the same book. Eleven is the first book we are attempting this with. I don't know if it's because I live in a community that was affected by the 9/11 attacks, or if it's just a general trend for YA readers, but I know that our YA community has been gobbling up stories about 9/11 in the past few years, which is how we ended up focusing on this book for our first One Read.
I vividly remember the class I was teaching when my in-class support teacher came in and said, "A plane just flew into one of the Twin Towers." And we both took a second to talk about how it must have been a little Piper Cub or somesuch, and how even a student pilot could be that bad at flying to have managed to hit a giant building. And I remember how the rest of the day unfolded in a series of literal moments of incredulity as more information came out, and then pictures; and how, at the end of the school day, it was decided that teachers would ride the buses home with the students and make sure that every kid was able to get into his or her house, because we weren't sure who didn't have parents to go home to.
Reading this book brought many of those memories back, along with the memory of the smoke on the horizon and the the smell that lingered in the air for days after.
The story itself feels relatively light, as it focuses mostly on a somewhat immature boy who's turning 11 on September 11, 2001, and for the first few chapters, it's not revealed that's when this is going on. Tom Rogers has done a pretty nice job of depicting what's going on in a way that makes it difficult to tell that this story is happening 16 years ago, until the "reveal" of the date several (short) chapters in (I mean, the cover and the back blurb make it clear when this is happening; but if one is not paying attention to these details, then they might find themselves a bit surprised by this "twist").
The main character, Alex, really wants a dog for his birthday, and he happens to find one that seems made for him on his way to school. A big chunk of the story deals with Alex and his new dog, and those portions were pretty wonderful - they have moments of joy and light, and moments that are darker, which overall capture a feeling of realism quite well.
Alex seems like a pretty normal ten year old - he has a couple friends he hangs out with, there's a bully who's making his life difficult, he plays video games too much, his parents love him but he feels like they don't see him for who he is, his little sister annoys him - sometimes on purpose. And when the attack goes down, he's close enough that his family is affected - his mother is a nurse, his father is the conductor of a PATH train whose route is the World Trade Center - but far enough that most of the adults don't tell him or his friends what's going on. For a while, Alex seems to be having a pretty great birthday.
When he finally finds out what has happened, he tries to figure out how to deal with this catastrophic, life-changing event.
Alex's story is interspersed with chapters from a different character's point of view, someone only referred to as The Man in the White Shirt. This character's story is told in a pretty straight-forward way, and it's clear he's connected to the main story somehow, but Rogers does a good job of keeping the identity of this character unclear until the very end of the story.
Rogers has done a nice job of mixing together a nice range of storylines and characters to create a realistic fiction story that captures many of the elements of what it was like to live through that terrible day. Because what most people forget is that, for anyone who wasn't standing at Ground Zero when it happened, it seemed like a normal day - right up until it wasn't. This is exactly what happens to Alex, and it's a journey I think YA readers should take, though they may not understand how it's possible to not know what's coming or how people could have been having "normal" lives just before this major historical event.
This book is an incredibly short read - I finished it in two sittings without disrupting the rest of my weekday. The chapters flick by quickly. Each chapter begins with a time stamp, and not every one of them is presented in exact chronological order, which can cause a little bit of confusion; it's important, particularly for readers who tend to rush through a book, to take a second to see when each chapter is taking place, or there may be some major confusion about the timeline.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I understand the choices that were made to make this a story that is very accessible to younger (middle grade) readers; but those choices render some of the characters rather flat, and the world Alex occupies on this day is pretty stripped-down and spare. However, the story has a lot of heart, and manages to wrest some moments of joy from a very terrible event. It was worth the read.
I vividly remember the class I was teaching when my in-class support teacher came in and said, "A plane just flew into one of the Twin Towers." And we both took a second to talk about how it must have been a little Piper Cub or somesuch, and how even a student pilot could be that bad at flying to have managed to hit a giant building. And I remember how the rest of the day unfolded in a series of literal moments of incredulity as more information came out, and then pictures; and how, at the end of the school day, it was decided that teachers would ride the buses home with the students and make sure that every kid was able to get into his or her house, because we weren't sure who didn't have parents to go home to.
Reading this book brought many of those memories back, along with the memory of the smoke on the horizon and the the smell that lingered in the air for days after.
The story itself feels relatively light, as it focuses mostly on a somewhat immature boy who's turning 11 on September 11, 2001, and for the first few chapters, it's not revealed that's when this is going on. Tom Rogers has done a pretty nice job of depicting what's going on in a way that makes it difficult to tell that this story is happening 16 years ago, until the "reveal" of the date several (short) chapters in (I mean, the cover and the back blurb make it clear when this is happening; but if one is not paying attention to these details, then they might find themselves a bit surprised by this "twist").
The main character, Alex, really wants a dog for his birthday, and he happens to find one that seems made for him on his way to school. A big chunk of the story deals with Alex and his new dog, and those portions were pretty wonderful - they have moments of joy and light, and moments that are darker, which overall capture a feeling of realism quite well.
Alex seems like a pretty normal ten year old - he has a couple friends he hangs out with, there's a bully who's making his life difficult, he plays video games too much, his parents love him but he feels like they don't see him for who he is, his little sister annoys him - sometimes on purpose. And when the attack goes down, he's close enough that his family is affected - his mother is a nurse, his father is the conductor of a PATH train whose route is the World Trade Center - but far enough that most of the adults don't tell him or his friends what's going on. For a while, Alex seems to be having a pretty great birthday.
When he finally finds out what has happened, he tries to figure out how to deal with this catastrophic, life-changing event.
Alex's story is interspersed with chapters from a different character's point of view, someone only referred to as The Man in the White Shirt. This character's story is told in a pretty straight-forward way, and it's clear he's connected to the main story somehow, but Rogers does a good job of keeping the identity of this character unclear until the very end of the story.
Rogers has done a nice job of mixing together a nice range of storylines and characters to create a realistic fiction story that captures many of the elements of what it was like to live through that terrible day. Because what most people forget is that, for anyone who wasn't standing at Ground Zero when it happened, it seemed like a normal day - right up until it wasn't. This is exactly what happens to Alex, and it's a journey I think YA readers should take, though they may not understand how it's possible to not know what's coming or how people could have been having "normal" lives just before this major historical event.
This book is an incredibly short read - I finished it in two sittings without disrupting the rest of my weekday. The chapters flick by quickly. Each chapter begins with a time stamp, and not every one of them is presented in exact chronological order, which can cause a little bit of confusion; it's important, particularly for readers who tend to rush through a book, to take a second to see when each chapter is taking place, or there may be some major confusion about the timeline.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I understand the choices that were made to make this a story that is very accessible to younger (middle grade) readers; but those choices render some of the characters rather flat, and the world Alex occupies on this day is pretty stripped-down and spare. However, the story has a lot of heart, and manages to wrest some moments of joy from a very terrible event. It was worth the read.
martin16's review
emotional
informative
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
anndren's review
4.0
I read this with my students and would highly recommend, especially if someone wants a good perspective as to what 9/11 was like on New York City that day.
danaaa's review
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
plantmomliv's review
3.0
I absolutely loved the concept of this book it was a really cool idea, i think i would have enjoyed more description from the perspective of ‘the man in the white shirt’ great book though!
cassuallyreading's review
5.0
Wow. I know I will probably never read a book about 9/11, and NOT feel emotional, but this one... heart strings pulled in all directions. A boy going from child to young adult, and the ending? So bittersweet. A must read!
hannabyrne's review against another edition
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0