Ground Zero by Alan Gratz

 


I am a huge fan of all Alan Gratz's books. Ground Zero tells a story that all Americans feel they know, but one that (teachers now sometimes forget) many of our students were not alive to live through and remember. Like many of Gratz's books, the story is told through the eyes of two main characters in two different time periods. Brandon is a suspended middle schooler who goes to work on September 11, 2001, with his father in the World Trade Center and Reshmina is an girl living Afghanistan in 2019 who is dealing with war-torn life that she and her family finds themselves living in between the Taliban and the United States. As always, the two characters find themselves extraordinarily connected by their individual and forever linked experiences, whether they know it or not.

For someone who lived through 9/11-I was in college at the time- Ground Zero brings back the terrifying history that our country experienced while also providing a perspective from "the other side". I found this book to be incredibly written and exciting, while I also appreciated the delicacy Gratz writes with. For our students who weren't alive at the time, Ground Zero should help them understand and appreciate this part of our country's history while also looking at it through a relatively fresh and unbiased lens. Regardless, this book should definitely be moved to the top of everyone's to-be-read pile!

-TK

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