Children's picture books about September 11th cover a huge range, from overly simplistic and insulting ("Fireboat" by Maira Kalman) to touching but vague salutes ("The Man Who Walked Between the Towers" by Mordecai Gerstein). "September Roses" is perhaps most remarkable because it is one of the few picture books to acknowledge the small acts of heroism that came out of a horrific unthinkable day. It's a book that remains complex and difficult to review if only because I'm still not certain what to think of it. Making 9-11 into something palatable to five-year-olds is a tricky proposition as it is. But while I may have my qualms with this book, I will concede that it's probably an okay way to introduce the subject of September 11th to one's children.
The book is based on a true story. One of the many unsung human moments that occurred during and after the days of the September attacks. It is about two sister who lived in South Africa growing commercial roses. Having entered their roses in the Agriflowers and Floritech Expo in New York City, they packed up 2,400 of the beauties for presentation. Their arrival, however, coincided with September 11th itself. With no Expo to attend and nowhere to go, the two were forced to live in the airport for a little while with their copious boxes of roses. After being taken in by members of the First United Methodist Church of Flushing, New York they decided to find some way to repay such kindness. All 2,400 roses were picked up and taken to Union Square. There, they were laid out in the shape of the twin towers, the center of New York's mourning. Says author Jeanette Winter in the end, "My tears fell on the roses".
It's a rather beautiful story, and one that Winter informs us is quite true. Of course, there are no facts or names presented in this tale. The women are never identified and therefore take on somewhat mythic proportions. One does wonder if Winter ever attempted to contact the women, or if she simply took their story for her own. It's certainly a good way of showing how individual people were affected by the ugliness of that day and the selflessness that came out of it. Still, I did wish it had at least been dedicated to them or something. The tone is particularly storybookish, as if writing in a style other than that of a fable would've been too harsh a choice. And again the factual factors bug me. Did the two women really live in a little house where flowers "brightened every room"? If so, why doesn't Winter say that she did the usual research on this tale?
As for the pictures, they are sparse pen and ink illustrations, occasionally colored in as appropriate. In the book, all pictures before the attacks are bright and jolly with an array of shades. The minute the towers are hit, however, the palate is entirely black and white and gray. The only colors left come from candles lit in memory, the flowers placed in the shape of the towers, and a single tear that waters them. The style fits the story well, and the only real objection I had to it was that this book (much like the unfortunate "Fireboat") decided that it would be a more dramatic, rather than accurate, choice to show the two planes approaching the towers together.
I think what the book does best is capture the expression of grief. This is a story that really does fill the reader, to some extent, with sorrow. And hope. There are just these niggling little flaws here and there that keep this from being THE quintessential method of explaining 9/11/01 to children. I liked it, but I still harbor some uncertainties about it. Undoubtedly some people will be able to look past my nitpicking and find the book to be a beautiful commemoration of a painful day. Others may find my points to be even more harrowing than I myself did. The book relies entirely on the reader's relationship to that day. For some, it will fill a void. For others, it'll trivialize that time. Recommended tentatively.
