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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
hopeful
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
Many teachers in MS are using this as their first read aloud for the year, so I had to see what all the hype was. I love the multiple perspectives in this book. I understand why the author skipped ahead one year, and I loved the message at the end, but it just felt too quick for me. I wanted more, I guess. The “more” I was searching for is in my memories, but won’t be in my students’.
Such a poignant story. Four middle schoolers experience September 11, 2001. One character's mom has a meeting at the World Trade Center. One character lives in Pennsylvania. One character lives in Brooklyn. One character is Muslim. The book covers a 48-hour time period when the world changes.
While I liked the unity in the ending, I didn't like this story as much as I wanted to. I felt like it glossed over the important parts - the actual events of 9/11 and the aftermath. Instead there was a lot of focus on the day to day lives of these characters that I didn't feel was actually important to the overall story. I feel like if a young person read this they'd have a lot more questions about 9/11 than answers and that's not what I would want for the kids I recommend books to
Five Stars! I haven't been in a reading mood but couldn't put this book down (read in one day)! The events of September 11, 2001 unfold from the perspective of 4 middle schoolers from different backgrounds in different parts of America. The novel starts 48 hours before the attacks and weaves the characters' lives into the tragedy. I won't give away the ending but I have to thank the author for honoring the reader with an appropriate conclusion. I will read aloud to my Student Historians in the fall--the discussion and questions will be rich. History impacts the famous and the not-so-famous--this novel demonstrates how people can come together to bring light to darkness.
A well written before and after story looking at the events of 9/11 from the points of view of 4 kids of differing backgrounds around the U.S.
This tale is told from four different perspectives -- four different kids in different parts of the United States -- and reveals their backgrounds and thoughts as September 11 approaches. Baskin chose great characters to write about and this book would make a great mentor text for teaching students to write personal narratives.
Several middle schoolers are going about their ordinary days in early September, 2001, leading up to September 11th. They are students in different states, different lives, and they do not know each other. It's a powerful look at before and after the events and destruction of 9/11, but I don't know if it completely would make sense to the target audience. I don't think that it can really bring home the ways in which the US is different now than it was before, or how scary it was to not know what was happening. I think it would have been more powerful if the children were in some way connected, through some distant family members or a regional academic competition or....something. I'm glad that everyone in the story made it through alive (oh sorry, spoiler...but it's a middle grad novel, not YA), but not glad enough to give it 5 stars.
This is a great story. I love the fact that there are alternating points of view; however, I felt the story lacked transitions between the four points of view.
Affecting, but not brutal, this tale of four people on the days leading into 9-11 is paced for young readers but well worth an afternoon's time. A reminder of the day everyone thinks they will never forge.