The Day the Towers Fell

by Heather Schwartz, Chris King (Contributor)

"Sari doesn't like standing out as the only Muslim student in her class, especially when kids like Andrew ask difficult questions. Then, a trip back in time takes them both to September 11, 2001. A tragic day in U.S. history helps them see their world in a whole new way"--

Genres: Graphic Novels, History, Comics, Childrens, Ebooks, New York, Time Travel

32 pages, Paperback

Published October 15, 2019

Reviews

[Suz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Indy, my boisterous nine year old, and I just listened to this short story about that fateful day. Indy is not a reader at all unfortunately, but did show interest when he heard this one as we drove in the car. The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11.

This was a little under his age group, and it added a touch of fiction.

A good, very basic description of that day, and, probably more importantly, a view point from a young Muslim girl that was able to describe her point of view to her cohort, and even notice (internally) that her teacher didn't do a great job of explaining things to the class.

We listened to this through the Libby platform through my public library.

Recommended for young children as an important lesson of world history.

[Darya Silman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up the book The Day the Towers Fell by Heather Schwartz because it came at the top of the list of popular books on Libby. Plus, it's about 9/11, and there can't be enough books on the topic. The audio will be helpful for kids, who doesn't like reading.

The storyline itself sounded too short and convoluted. I don't see the point of adding the time travel element to the story that could have been fully recorded in the present times. It's not obvious how kids came to the conclusion how Muslims and terrorists are different. The book's good as the starting point of the discussion, but more layers/more material are needed to answer the questions the book is asking.

[Kellie O'Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book that explains September 11, 2001. An excellent way to explain 9/11 to fourth graders!

The audio book and illustrations are fantastic!

I highly recommend this one!

Enjoy and Happy Reading 💫✨

[Cherlynn | cherreading · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tries to be woke but does a poor job of it. Nothing great about the artwork either. A huge disservice to the 9/11 tragedy.

[Michelle Boyer · Rating 1 out of 5]

The students in this story are learning about the September 11th terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers for the first time; they were all born after these events took place. Sari is a Muslim girl in the class; the teacher keeps ignoring that she is trying to help answer questions about Muslims, the Middle East, etc. The students try to talk to Sari about Muslim culture/religion but Sari is a bit uncomfortable based on how bad a job the teacher did discussing these things. They then get in a bus accident and… time travel back to September 11th. They help save a babysitter and six children, then jump back to the present and write a report about the event. The theme: everyone was ‘American’ this day and helped one another.

How to Use This Book: This book should not be used in any classroom, as it is absolutely ridiculous and in many ways, offensive. While I normally have nothing against “time travel” narratives, this one is so sloppily put together that I cannot help but question what the author was thinking. There are far better ways to get the main message of this story across. Adding supernatural elements to this historic event is, quite simply put, offensive. (Note: this was a graphic novel, which is the only interesting thing about it).

Personal Response: This book was stupid. The main theme here is that on the day of September 11, everyone in America united (regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, etc.). That message is great. However, turning this into some sort of a time-travel narrative (one that does not make sense, actually) where the students come back and write a report in which they imply they helped save people from the attacks… ludacris. I cannot believe this junk was published.

[Max Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this because my student had a copy in class.

I didn’t love it personally and I think it would not go deep enough to use in a classroom at my level, but nonetheless has value and can teach some important lessons. I wish it was a bit longer and also went a little more in depth.

[Emily Carter-Dunn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible

[hannah •baby it’s cold outside• jeffers · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a short book that aptly explains to younger children the differences between an entire group (in this book, muslims, asians, and POC) and individuals.

📕 from the name of the book, you can see it’s initially about the happenings of 9/11.
🧕🏼 from the cover, you can see a girl in hijab.

the story is about a teacher who tries to teach a lesson on 9/11 and ends up explaining that muslims were those that attacked the towers. unfortunately, there is only one person in the class who is muslim. stares and questions bombard our young fmc. then, there was an •experience•. our fmc & mmc end up doing a project together to teach the class more about the event from a different view.

in a similar situation, this teacher tries to teach about pearl harbor and the holocaust. with each example, there is a single person in the class who gets stares.. much like the fmc!

the end finds everyone in the class working together to finish the project so they can appreciate their differences and learn that everyone matters. we may come from different religions, races, and backgrounds, but when we do our best to be inclusive and understanding? we can go further and do better!

i’m giving this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ five stars because i could imagine sharing this with my nieces, nephews, and god children. it’s a big big world out there and judging doesn’t do anyone favors. 🥹🫶🏻

[Abbie Bergested · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think graphic novels are a great way to get kids or people with delayed learning an approachable way to read. It is even better when they are informative and teaching important things in a simpler way. This was super sweet and I will be saving this title to read to my nieces and nephew when they get a little older

[Kuu]

I'm very far away from still being a child so I don't know if I just randomly accepted a 3-page time-jump as a kid, but as an adult that's very random

[sierra adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

i read this with my 8 year old niece. she is fascinated with 9/11 and she begs me to borrow any books to do with the attacks from the online library. she liked this one!

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a good read. I would recommend this book as a classroom readaloud while talking about Sept 11. It was quick, but so much in the book.

[Asuka Mai · Rating 4 out of 5]

❇ The Day the Towers Fell ❇

*By: Heather E. Schwartz
*Illustrated by : Chris King
*Halaman: 36 hal
*Penerbit: TCM
*Baca di: Libby
*Tahun terbit : 2020

Buku ini menceritakan kisah kejadian runtuhnya Menara Kembar WTC (World Trade Center) pada tanggal 11 September 2001. Dimana saat itu Amerika di Bom dan di teror oleh teroris dari kelompok Al-Qaeda.

Saat itu di sekolah Amerika, Pak Guru Petrie sedang menerangkan kejadian runtuhnya Menara Kembar tersebut. Ada satu murid yang memakai Hijab bernama Sari dimana ia satu-satunya murid yang beragam Islam. Ia berusaha mengangkat tangan dan ingin menjelaskan pada Pak Petrie kalau Islam yang dianut oleh kelompok Al-aeda berbeda dengan Islam umum-nya. Namun Pak Petrie mengabaikan Sari.

Murid-murid lain pun memandang Sari dengan sedikit intimidasi. Namun ada juga beberapa teman Sari yang tidak menyalahkan Sari dan agama-nya mengenai kejadian 2001 silam.

Sampai pada akhirnya bell berbunyi dan anak- anak pulang sekolah. Sari bertanya pada orang tuanya mengapa ia berbeda dan seringkali orang-orang memandang dirinya dengan tatapan benci karena ia memakai Hijab. orang tua Sari berusaha membesarkan hati Sari.

Keesokan harinya ketika Sari akan ke sekolah, Sari bertemu salah satu teman sekelas-nya di bus sekolah. Temannya meminta maaf dan tidak bermaksud untuk membenci dirinya. Namun hanya bingung mengapa Islam sangat dikaitkan dengan seorang teroris.
Sari berusaha menjelaskan dan tiba-tiba ada ledakan.. Dan ternyata Sari dan teman-nya terlempar ke masa lalu ke kejadian saat akan mulai nya serangan dari teroris.

Bagaimana Sari dan temannya menghadapi situasi saat itu..

4✴✴✴✴ dari ku.

walau kisah Sari ini fiksional, namun sampai saat ini orang-orang muslim di Amerika banyak dijauhi dan dibenci. Karena duka mendalam yang dibawa teroris yang mengatasnamakan agama tertentu. Sampai sekarang mereka ikut terkena batunya.
Agama Islam yang ku kenal adalah Islam yang penuh kedamaian. Sedangkan teroris adalah kebalikan nya.

[Natasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I borrowed this YA graphic novel from Libby because I wanted to read the story from the perspective of a Muslim student set a few years after the incident. Considering it is such a short book, it conveyed a lot- a social studies teacher who lacked nuance while teaching his middle grade class about something that happened just a few years in the past, a teenage hijabi student who was made to feel very uncomfortable and who wanted to set the facts right, a flashback which showed how the city came together on that fateful day regardless of differences, and a tidy summing up where the Japanese incarceration in American concentration camps became a group project instead of an individual one. One might have expected a distinctly different style of illustration when the hijabi student and her white classmate were whisked off into the past, but the difference was very subtle. This is a great resource for middle grade teachers.

[Imara]

I’m much older than the intended audience, but I’ve been in a reading slump and decided to give something quick a chance. I think the book skirts over a lot of issues that the US inserted itself in due to capitalism and white supremacy, which is passed on through the teacher. One of the main characters the only Muslim in the class and the teacher lets the kids basically call her a terrorist. Her parents tell her being different is good, which I do agree that we’re not a monolith, but she shouldn’t HAVE to be the person to speak up. It’s not her job to educate her peers, if she wants to, that’s great. Same with the only Japanese and African American students. White people have access to the internet and can find resources. The Muslim man in the past was under no obligation to save anyone to prove he wasn’t a terrorist. Politics and international relations are hard topics to teach to elementary aged kids, but I felt this would leave much to be desired

[CharBearReads · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an alright read. Just a quick graphic / comic book that I found on Libby. I understood this read as them trying to show that just because specific group of people executed the planned attack against the United States, does not mean that everyone from that group of people are that evil. For me it just didn't really dive into the attack as much as they could have and although this appears to be a children's book they really washed / scrubbed this from including some of the most important points of the day as a whole. Idk it just was it the book for me and I don't see myself recommending it.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I might be bias because I’m older than the age it’s for lol. I was bored and saw it on Libby so I decided to read it because I loved books about history like this when I was younger. I think little kids that are interested in stuff about history will really like this book. It’s a cute story about unity and not judging people by how they look which is perfect for young ones to learn in this day and age.

[Regan Durdle · Rating 2 out of 5]

read online

[Orinthia Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

#74 - 2024

[Donnie]

Something to think about.

[Arlene Hernandez]

listen ……. it was ready to borrow and i was curious. it counts as a book read this year 😤

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Will be using this for my grade 9 class!

[alexis michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is definitely disrespectful and probably kinda mildly severely racist

[hayley · Rating 1 out of 5]

girl this “graphic novel” was like 3 pages long 😭 wtf

[theperksofbeingmarissa ;) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think there could've been more information about the Islamophobia that occurred after 9/11. This seemed a bit surface level.

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read. Checked it out on Libby because of it being popular. It seems like a good way to introduce the topic.

[yumna syifa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story, it’s kinda out of my expectations, I was expecting that this will tell more about the Twins Tower and its incident. Rather than that, this story tells the adventure about they go back to the past--when the event happened. It is a good story because it teaches us how to face differences between people and tolerance, but still, this book didn’t tell us well about the incident. But I still love the moral of the story, though.

[Sherry Scheline · Rating 2 out of 5]

I came across this and did it as a read a long. I was very disappointed. First, it is 35 short pages so I thought it would be a great early reader about the Twin Towers, but it is not. It is a storyline more for a middle schooler. It’s weird also how they take this non-fiction story and turn it in to this fictional event and try to do it all in under 35 pages. It just didn’t work for me.


If you have good 9/11 books recommendations for youth I would love suggestions?

[ADs · Rating 1 out of 5]

While it is targeted towards young children and meets the requirements to keep them engaged, it does not do much to truly educate what happened during 9/11. It does not address the issues that sprung at the beginning of the novel. IT should have been longer and done more to alleviate the issue of Islamophobia that arose at the beginning of the novel.

[Dee Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Libby local library e-book 32 pages

A teacher wrote this book to help young children learn about more recent periods of history. In this book, Sari is a young Muslim girl who wears a hijab and Andrew a friend in her class have more questions than answers after a teacher does a poor job explaining what happened on 9/11, expressing his own opinion that all terrorists are Muslims. The next day, the two children's bus is involved in an accident, sending them back to New York City on the morning of the attack. They are able to help a babysitter who is responsible for a number of children and is trying to get them to safety. The friends volunteer to help her. They also observe people of all nationalities trying to help others in need. One man who has been injured volunteers to carry two of the babysitters young children. Later, when the friends finally get on a bus, they are transported back to the future and their families with a better understanding of what happened on the horrible day. They offer to write a report and are happy to receive a B because they could not disclose their source.
The next subject taught by the teacher was on Japanese internment camps created during WWII because Americans thought the Japanese were spies. The two friends notice how uncomfortable a Japanese American girl in the class feels. They also pay closer attention to a boy who the only black student in the class. The two students suggest to the teacher that the class work together to create a group report. The teacher doesn't understand why they would want to work together. "We all come from different backgrounds and have different viewpoints, so it will make the report more relevant! "
The book opens with six questions to serve as a study guide.
The artwork is done in bold colors in comic book style. The writer herself was actually in New York City on 9/11. The book is directed toward 4th graders. I learned from it, too.
Teachers, especially those who have multi-ethnical students, must be very thoughtful and purposeful in teaching history, lest their own personal biases affect their lessons.
This book led me to The Only Plane In the Sky: A Oral History of 9/11 written by Garrett M Graff.