911: The Book of Help (Authors Respond to the Tragedy) [Paperback]

Michael Cart (Editor), Marc Aronson (Editor), Marianne Carus (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 25, 2002

In 911: The Book of Help, award-winning writers share their responses to the September 11, 2001 tragedy and describe the heroism of those who first rushed to help. The works in 911 are donated, and 50 percent of the net proceeds will go to a charity assisting children and spouses of victims.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An impressive cast of more than 20 children's book authors donated work to this highly personal, often affecting roundup of essays, short stories and poems inspired by the events of September 11th. Organized into four sections from "Healing" to "Reacting and Recovering," the pieces range from related events triggered by the New York tragedy to writers' evocations of the horrific images they viewed that morning. Arnold Adoff draws a correlation to King's assassination in Memphis ("Souls rise/ without reason long before their reasonable times"); David Paterson (son of fellow contributor Katherine Paterson) recounts perhaps the most immediate connection to the terrorist attacks as he relates his experience at Ground Zero on September 13 with shovel in hand to help clear the rubble. In a candid entry, Walter Dean Myers recalls watching a Middle Eastern man in London cheering the loss of American lives: "He is my enemy because those who think like he does have brought violence and hatred to my door, and to the doors of those I love." Perhaps Susan Cooper (who heard the roar of a fighter plane in New York City on 9/11 and recalled the bombs that fell on her London neighborhood during WWII) best sums up the collection's underlying message: "But the opposite of terror is hope, and... hope can drive out fear." Other contributors to this strong collection include Avi, Sharon Creech, Nikki Giovanni, Margaret Mahy and Naomi Shihab Nye; Chris Raschka provides an evocative cover and interior pen-and-inks for each section opener. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up-A global viewpoint on the September 11 attacks is presented through 25 essays, short stories, and poems divided into four sections: "Healing," "Searching for History," "Asking Why? Why? Why?" and "Reacting and Recovering." Although every entry does not deal with the theme of rebuilding, Katherine Paterson's introductory essay sets a tone of hope. Paterson's son David gives a vivid, textured picture of what it was like to work at Ground Zero less than 48 hours after the attack. Russell Freedman pays tribute to New Yorkers' sense of community and appreciation for the rescue workers who gave their lives. While many of the short pieces offer a sense of hope, much of the poetry will make readers cry. The horror, anger, and pain are given voice, too. Walter Dean Myers's essay is about just that-the anger and frustration engendered by our vulnerability and inability to elicit sympathy from cultures that harbor enmity for America. A call for understanding is evidenced in several pieces. Marion Dane Bauer reminds readers to beware of fear and know that we can change the world one kindness at a time. James Cross Giblin uses Pearl Harbor and the Cuban Missile Crisis to assure readers that, as a nation, we will survive. Naomi Shihab Nye, an Arab-American, says we make sense out of life through words. This volume is a worthy attempt to do so.
Joanne K. Cecere, Monroe-Woodbury High School, Central Valley, NY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Cricket Books/Marcato (July 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812626761
• ISBN-13: 978-0812626766
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,564,960 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #25 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Nonfiction > Current Events > September 11
  • #73 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Nonfiction > Current Events > Terrorism

More About the Author

All of my books start with questions, and I hope they prompt readers to ask questions of their own.

I find history history endlessly fascinating. It is the detective story that yields us as the answer.

I try to write each book with the same care I would put into a novel, but with the same respect for truth as a judge in a court of law.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Surprisingly Good 911 Book--For Teens & Adults, September 26, 2002

By 

Peter Money, author (Vermont) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 911: The Book of Help (Authors Respond to the Tragedy) (Paperback)

"USE WORDS" author Naomi Shihab Nye offers in a new book, published by Cricket Books (the
children's publisher) and Carus Publishing, called _911: The Book of Help_. "USE WORDS. It is the
most helpful thing I have learned in my life. . . Whether we write them down for ourselves or send them into
the air as connective lifelines between us, they help us live, breathe, and see."

Walter Dean Myers--five time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award--tells it differently, shortly after 9/11
from London, as what was thought to be another terrorist attack brought down a plane in Queens: "I watched
as a group of young men stood in front of an appliance store and watched the events on a television in the
window. They were cheering the destruction. . . I watched one young man in particular: he was slapping the
backs of his fellow watchers and making a big show of his glee at the image of the burning plane. . . ."
Myers son, he writes, was to leave from California to the Middle East as an Air Force chaplain. In those
moments watching the young man, a young man not so unlike his own son--the chaplain ("[t]hey both
profess beliefs in a loving, merciful God"), the author nevertheless embraces a stunning reality: he has, in
that moment, an *enemy*. . . if only in the instinct which seeks to protect his son.

Sonya Sones' tender and gripping poem "Voices" is one of the most moving, and dramatic, pieces in this
book. Simple in its three lined stanza form and in its utterance, it recalls the many struggling faces of horror
and tragedy: "I am the one/ who'd traveled from Kansas/ to see the view from the top.//. . . I am the one/
who fought with my wife/ before I came to work// I am the one/ who'd just found out/ my cancer was in
remission.//. . . I am the one/ who looked up from my desk/and first saw the plane bearing down.//. . . I am
the one/ who held my daughter close to me/and prayed.//. . . We are the ones/who were blown/through the
glass//. . . We are the ones/who can't/rest in peace.//. . . ."

Author David Paterson dropped what he was doing, after he could not stand it any longer, and went down to
Ground Zero to see if he could help. At one point he finds in the pile "the miniature painting of a
three-masted ship. . . the tiny brush strokes. . . impressive, creating both waves breaking against the ship and
the gentle clouds pushing it on its way." There was, also, a torn area "from shrapnel". He could read the
name of the artist--it belonged to a woman who had retired from an office in One World Trade. She awaited
the painting, pulled from the rubble, in Houston.

Kyoko Mori, author of the memoir _The Dream of Water_ and two time ALA Best Books for Young Adults
winner, writes "I had been lucky: I had been sheltered from the war, violence, and hunger that devastated a
great portion of the world. . . [and] even as I grieve. . . I want to welcome the opportunity to belong to the
rest of the world. . . the bond that suffering creates between people past and present, here and there, and all
over the world."

Whether we know another by the name "enemy" or "friend," it is--as Naomi Shihab Nye has requested of
us--a matter of letting our words express our humanity. One cannot really say this is a self-serving directive;
now compels a dialog, an anti-war, an opening into which words explain ourselves--so we may then
embrace.

--Peter Money is a librarian, teacher, poet & writer, & member of PEN New England. *This book recommended for Teen and Adult Collections*