We Will Never Forget: Picture books to remember 9/11
A couple of years ago I did mini-reveiws on Instagram for September 11th picture books. These books still stand as the best books to read to your children to know the history of the Twin Towers and the attacks. Unfortunately, I haven’t read any great picture books about Flight 93 or the attack on the Pentagon. If and when I do I’ll add them to this post.
We were able to visit the Flight 93 Memorial in Pennsylvania and it was the saddest and most beautiful place I’ve ever walked through.
THIS VERY TREE by Sean Rubin is a beautiful, hopeful book that revolves around a pear tree that was planted between the Twin Towers when they were newly built. The tree suffers from 9/11 & isn't sure if it'll ever return as it once was, but through deep love, care, and time spring comes again.
THE MAN WHO WALKED BETWEEN THE TOWERS by Mordicai Gerstein is about Philippe Petit, a tightrope walker, and his connection with the Twin Towers. It’s quite the connection! He tightrope walked between both buildings! He went back and forth and sat and danced and ran (it gives me the willies!) for almost an hour between the two buildings! I tried watching a movie based on Philippe’s life and almost threw up. I don’t do well with heights.
This story can definitely be read to and by all ages. There are no details of what happened on 9/11. The first page shows the two towers standing side-by-side and the second to last spread simply shows an empty skyline and reads, “Now the towers are gone.” When we first read this book it led to so many questions and discussion. That’s why I favor this story because it’s open-ended. You get to talk about that day with your children, what you remember, what you saw, how it affected you, so many others, and our country.
IN THE SHADOW OF THE FALLEN TOWERS by Don Brown is a graphic novel on the "seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years after the 9/11 attacks," which is unique because most books just focus on the day and then a few days afterward with some giving a look at what New York looked like a year later. IN THE SHADOW takes us all the way into 2021. It doesn't include the recent events in Afghanistan, but it's only because it was published on August 10th of 2021.
Don Brown takes us through the entire conflict. We visit New York, the Pentagon, Pennsylvania, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay. We meet the firemen, police, news reporters, cameramen, employees, soldiers, the President, terrorists, doctors. There were so many who had their hands in 9/11 and its aftermath. So many that gave their lives.
This brings me to the age for this book. I'm not usually one who says a book is for a certain age especially when it comes to picture books; however, this is a graphic novel and Don Brown just gives it as is. It's intense. He doesn't sugarcoat and just writes what exactly was said and done. I would read this to ages 9 and up.
THE LITTLE CHAPEL THAT STOOD by A.B. Curtiss is probably one of the best 9/11 books for young readers who have a natural sympathetic/empathetic heart. It is told very gently, through rhyme, and even the illustrations aren’t harsh.
The story revolves around St. Paul’s Chapel, which sits across the street from where the World Trade Center once stood. It was built in 1766! All the buildings surrounding it were severely damaged by the attacks and had to be taken down, yet the chapel did not have one pane of glass broken or brick out of place. It was the safest building in that area and used as a haven for rescue workers.
Again, THE LITTLE CHAPEL, is such a light approach to the attacks and the focus is on the resiliency of the chapel, the city, its people, and the country. Hope is shown in all of us coming together. “Terror may come, but it will not stay” is my favorite line from this book. Also, I love the part when it talks about the shoes left on the gate as firemen changed into their boots. It makes me weepy every time I read anything about the shoes left on the gate of St. Paul’s Chapel.
