Book Review: Towers Falling

As I listened to the laughter and shouts of joy coming from my two children who were happily watching bombs bursting in mid-air, I realized how innocent and free these 9 & 11 year old boys were. I watched my nine year old place a whirly-bird on the ground, and take off running for his life as he knew the fuse was soon to blow. Once he was a safe distance away, he turned back to watch the final moments of the firework launch into the air to explode in a multitude of lights above his head. I didn't turn to watch the firework, but instead turned to watch his angelic, innocent face and see his eyes reflecting the glow of the night. He could feel my stare upon him as he turned to me and asked, "Mommy are you crying?" I shook my head, wiping away tears, and said this reminds me of the book I am reading of a time you weren't alive to know about. It was a time when bombs burst across our nation and made us realize our freedom comes at a price. He knew I was upset, not an angry kind of upset, but one of pure sadness. He sat down beside me as his brother took his turn blowing something up and asked me again, "Why are you crying about a book?"

Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes is a book of truth. It will make the adult readers pause and tell the young reader whose hands this book should belong, exactly the time and place they were the moment they learned that suicidal terrorists flew planes into four US areas: the Pentagon, a random field in Pennsylvania and into two of the largest buildings in New York City: The Twin Towers. Jewell Parker Rhodes won the Coretta Scott King Honor Award for her book Ninth Ward and I hope to see her recognized again for her ability to tell the story of 9/11 through the words of a homeless 10 year old girl, Deja.

Deja, and her family of five, has been evicted from their home and she has to learn to embrace who she is despite her ailing father, a working mother and her two younger siblings. 

On the first day of school she meets Ben, who is also new and has just moved to Brooklyn from Arizona, and Sabeen, a young Muslim student who has lived in NY all of her life. The three children are in the same homeroom with Miss Garcia as their teacher and the unlikely friendship forms: a white boy, a black girl and a Muslim girl. Within the first few days of school, Miss Garcia informs her students they will be working on a class unit learning about the absence of the towers which they could see from their classroom windows 15 years ago. Deja is unaware of this event, and through the friendship of Ben and Sabeen, she soon learns of the devastation and ruin. She has to learn how this effected our nation, but how this event is the reason her father can no longer hold a job or maintain sanity. 

Fifteen years has passed since this event occurred, but to many people, this tragedy will forever be a part of their life. Freedom is given to us in the United States, but present day children do not realize how freedom can be taken away in mere moments. Pass this book on to our youth. Teach them a moment of history through the perspective of one of their 5th grade peers....Deja learns more about herself and her family through our history of 9/11.