The Memory of Things by Gae Polisner is another new novel
written about September 11th. This one
focuses on that Tuesday morning in New York City and the days immediately
afterwards. The main character, Kyle,
was a student at Stuyvesant High School and with some classmates walked back to
his home in Brooklyn – along the way, he found a teenaged girl who is so
traumatized by the events of the day that she cannot even remember her name.
Kyle’s Dad is a first responder and his Mom is grounded in
California so once home he has to deal with this girl and with his Uncle Matt who is now
wheelchair-bound due to an earlier injury.
Author Gae Polisner offers reaction to the day in both poetic and
narrative form, from both the girl and Kyle.
She dramatically captures the range of emotions, including numbness,
which spread across the country at that time.
Students will quickly be drawn into events and find this book to be
moving and poignant, although the ending seemed a bit abrupt.
The Red Bandanna by Tom Rinaldi is a non-fictional work which
tells the story of Welles Remy Crowther, a young man who worked for Sandler
O’Neill in the World Trade Center. Welles
had experience as a volunteer fireman and exhibited honor, selflessness, and
courage to help save at least a dozen people on September 11. More of his story is told in this ESPN video.
In The Red Bandanna, Rinaldi further describes
Crowther’s life and his values. This is
a very inspirational story and may encourage readers to investigate subsequent charitable works, including character
development programs through The Red Bandana Project or the picture book crafted by Crowther’s sister and father. A true hero, Welles Crowther certainly
deserves our respect and admiration, although Rinaldi’s book seemed a bit repetitive
and slow; it included much more background (like Crowther’s time playing
lacrosse at Boston College) prior to the 9/11 events.
In addition to The Red Bandanna by Tom Rinaldi and The
Memory of Things by Gae Polisner, see other books about September 11,
including the novels Extremely Loud and
Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, The Usual Rules by Joyce Maynard, and All We Have Left by Wendy Mills,
plus the middle school book Nine, Ten. For alternative formats,
see the graphic novel, In the Shadow of
No Towers by Art Spiegelman and With
Their Eyes which contains the script of a play based on interviews with
Stuyvesant high school students. These, plus other non-fiction titles will be
available at our new library.
