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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
I liked this book and would recommend it for the 3rd-6th grade set. For a generation who knows nothing about the reality of 9/11, it's an instructional read coming with understanding humanity. Rhodes covers all the stereotypes in a classroom of kids who have to do a history project not only on the September tragedy, but to discover what makes us "American".
The story could have been a little deeper, but for 8-11 year olds, I think they'd get a lot from the story.
The story could have been a little deeper, but for 8-11 year olds, I think they'd get a lot from the story.
This story is masterfully told.
It is from the perspective of a young girl who had never heard of 9/11. Her two friends are a Muslim girl and a boy whose father joined the military in response to the attacks. Parker Rhodes crafted a text that is the perfect introduction to the attacks for young kids (the characters are in 5th grade). I would highly recommend this book to anyone, but especially teachers and classrooms with all of those kiddos that need and want to know but don’t.
It is from the perspective of a young girl who had never heard of 9/11. Her two friends are a Muslim girl and a boy whose father joined the military in response to the attacks. Parker Rhodes crafted a text that is the perfect introduction to the attacks for young kids (the characters are in 5th grade). I would highly recommend this book to anyone, but especially teachers and classrooms with all of those kiddos that need and want to know but don’t.
I wanted to love this book so much more than I did. It starts with a good concept - to examine 9/11 and its significance through the eyes of children who did not live through it. But then it takes that concept and adds so many sub-topics that one has the distinct impression this was a book designed by committee: How did 9/11 affect the people who were there and their families? Did it affect people of different races differently? Does it mean the same thing to rich and poor people? How about homeless people? How do Muslim Americans feel about it? How about children of Americans who chose to join the military in response? Does it mean something different to New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers? And what is the right age to teach children about it anyway?
And perhaps that is where the story goes awry. It tries to do too much, answer too many carefully designed discussion questions, and spends too little time building a solid plot or developing interesting, believable characters. The children all act and think like mini adults who also happen to be educators. Everyone in the book speaks in odd sentence fragments that might have been believable as one character’s peculiar speech pattern, but are instead clearly poorly written dialog, since every character speaks exactly the same way. The Muslim character is only superficially Muslim and her Turkish mother dresses as though she were from the Gulf instead of Turkey. The plot is flat with no real conflict or meaningful revelations. The entire time you are reading you feel intensely what it means to break that oh-so-important rule of good writing -- to show instead of tell. It is very clear in this book that the author is telling us what 9/11 should mean to us as Americans.
I’m the parent of 2 children born after 9/11, one of whom is almost an adult. He and his peers have been told how significant 9/11 was since they entered school. None of them feels that significance, and I think that is natural. I’m not sure they should be encouraged to even try. We didn’t feel the significance of Vietnam in the way our parents did. Our parents didn’t feel the significance of WWII the way their parents did. Our grandparents only felt the significance of WWI perhaps when they found themselves in the midst of WWII. Time moves on. We move on. Kids need to be able to find the significance of 9/11 (or not find it) in their own way at their own pace without us adults trying to lead the discussion to the conclusions we wish for them to take away. I think there is value to sharing the story of what happened with them and discussing it with them, but a book like this which borders on propaganda isn't the right way to do it.
And perhaps that is where the story goes awry. It tries to do too much, answer too many carefully designed discussion questions, and spends too little time building a solid plot or developing interesting, believable characters. The children all act and think like mini adults who also happen to be educators. Everyone in the book speaks in odd sentence fragments that might have been believable as one character’s peculiar speech pattern, but are instead clearly poorly written dialog, since every character speaks exactly the same way. The Muslim character is only superficially Muslim and her Turkish mother dresses as though she were from the Gulf instead of Turkey. The plot is flat with no real conflict or meaningful revelations. The entire time you are reading you feel intensely what it means to break that oh-so-important rule of good writing -- to show instead of tell. It is very clear in this book that the author is telling us what 9/11 should mean to us as Americans.
I’m the parent of 2 children born after 9/11, one of whom is almost an adult. He and his peers have been told how significant 9/11 was since they entered school. None of them feels that significance, and I think that is natural. I’m not sure they should be encouraged to even try. We didn’t feel the significance of Vietnam in the way our parents did. Our parents didn’t feel the significance of WWII the way their parents did. Our grandparents only felt the significance of WWI perhaps when they found themselves in the midst of WWII. Time moves on. We move on. Kids need to be able to find the significance of 9/11 (or not find it) in their own way at their own pace without us adults trying to lead the discussion to the conclusions we wish for them to take away. I think there is value to sharing the story of what happened with them and discussing it with them, but a book like this which borders on propaganda isn't the right way to do it.
Thus far, this is my most favorite book of 2016. It was a masterful approach to 9/11 that was a perfect blend for middle school students who can only imagine what it was like to be alive during this most horrific American historical event. This book teaches history along with empathy and just plain kindness.
2 stars seems like a harsh review, so let me preface it by saying it is NOT the subject material. I appreciate how difficult that is, even all these years later, to talk about what happened. To explain it to children is that much harder. To keep the memory alive without making them too afraid to continue, that's such an impossible task. The author took on an amazing feat.
I prefer character driven stories. It's told from the first person perspective, but I don't actually feel like I know all that much about Deja besides her homelessness and anger. Deja was a vessel to tell a different story, and I could feel that the entire time. The interactions between the kids felt very superficial and unbelievable. Their only conversations revolved around their homework assignments. Their inside jokes were just references to projects. They're 10, but their relationships don't have to be so shallow. They have other interests and observations.
As a strictly fiction-for-education piece, it gets the job done. I'm not sure it's the book I'd choose to accomplish the lesson, however.
I prefer character driven stories. It's told from the first person perspective, but I don't actually feel like I know all that much about Deja besides her homelessness and anger. Deja was a vessel to tell a different story, and I could feel that the entire time. The interactions between the kids felt very superficial and unbelievable. Their only conversations revolved around their homework assignments. Their inside jokes were just references to projects. They're 10, but their relationships don't have to be so shallow. They have other interests and observations.
As a strictly fiction-for-education piece, it gets the job done. I'm not sure it's the book I'd choose to accomplish the lesson, however.
Everyone knows where they were when the Twin Towers fell. But kids now have no context of 9/11. This book tells the story of fifth grade Dèja, a homeless black girl, who is learning about the attack for the first time at her NYC school, discovering that it has affected her life more than she could ever imagine. Own Voices. F & P Level W.
emotional
Such a powerful book. Loved how the author tackled the issue of trying to teacher children about 9/11. As a teacher, I have students who were to young to know anything about 9/11 and they don't understand why they should care and the reason some adults react differently to 9/11. Perfect for upper elementary and middle school students.