Ground Zero: A Novel of 9/11

Ground Zero: A Novel of 9/11

By Alan Gratz

New York: Scholastic Press, 2021

Grades: 6 and up Genre: Historical Fiction (to most of targeted audience)

If you lived through 9/11 this book brings back vivid memories and emotions. If you are reading it as historical fiction you will come to appreciate the magnitude of that dark day in American history. Gratz is a master of telling two separate stories and then entwine them to make one! This book is told in alternating chapters of Brandon and Reshmina. Brandon is on a one-day suspension from school and since his dad does not want him home alone he takes him to work at the Windows on the World a restaurant on the 106 and 107 floors in the North tower of the World Trade Center (Building One). Brandon sneaks out from the restaurant around 8:45 in the hopes of getting to the underground mall, making a purchase (to make restitution of an items that got broke in the prior days fight) and get back before his dad noticed he was even gone. But once on the elevator a plane hits the tower and sets off a series of emotional escapes and events as Brandon tries to first save his only remaining parent, his dad, and then to save himself.

Reshmina’s story take place 18 years later in Afghanistan, where she and her twin brother are trying to help support their family in a country that has only seen war during Reshmina’s lifetime. Taliban and American soldiers have torn their country and families apart. Tired of doing nothing her twin, Pasoon goes off to join the Taliban thus destroying the family which has fought hard to stay together and stay alive. During a raid of Reshmina’s town an American soldier is seriously wounded and in need of care. Because of the code Pashtunwali the family felt the duty to care for anyone who asks for help. This sets off a chain of events that endangers her entire community. But, here we learn about war devastation and the searching for the reasons for why there is war in Afghanistan.

Then these two stories then become one!

This story will break your heart as details of 9/11 unfold. This story will educate you about the role of women in the middle east, about the Taliban, about the America’s desire for retaliation and about the changes that have come about in Afghanistan and at Ground Zero since the day that changed the world forever, September 11, 2001.