September 11, 2001, was indiscriminate and sweeping in the way that it touched the lives of Americans. Eight years after the events of the day there is a generation of children who, while alive at the time, are simply too young to remember it. It is a contemporary event, yet it is history for them as well.
It did not take long for authors and illustrators to tackle the topic of September 11th, as a new canon of “cope literature” needed constructing. These books, which were written to help the children of that day are just as valid as springboards to talk to children who now view 9/11 as an event in history, to be studied rather than survived. Here are some exemplary picture book titles, written only because September 11th happened, existing only because of that dreadful day.
Fireboat: The heroic adventures of the John J. Henry by Maira Kalman
This book starts as a history about the John J. Henry, which was a 1930’s fireboat that had served its time and was headed for the scrap heat. It was recalled into service on 9/11, used in place of the inoperable, inaccessible fire hydrants at Ground Zero.
There’s a Big Beautiful World Out There by Nancy Carlson
A simple note at the end of this uplifting picture book indicates that it was written on September 12, 2001. It is the story about a girl who chooses between living in fear or facing her fears and living a full, beautiful life. Carlson’s recognizable, cheerful style establishes this as a book from which to take encouragement, even when days are dark.
September Roses by Jeannette Winters
Author and illustrator Jeannette Winters has a track record of writing picture books about current events that would seem beyond the scope of the format. She has written about everything from the devastating Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 to the librarian who saved her library’s treasures in war-torn Iraq. In this book she tells the story of two sisters who travelled to New York from South Africa for a flower show, arriving on the morning of September 11, 2001, almost simultaneously with the attack. They are stranded with the boxes of roses they brought for the show. Wishing desperately to provide some relief for the devastated citizens of New York, the sisters add their flowers to the impromptu memorial developing in Union Station.
The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein
This Caldecott Medal winner (2004) tells the story of Philippe Petit, a French acrobat who in 1974 clandestinely set up a tight rope between the two towers of the World Trade Center. The next morning he astounded the crowds on the streets below with a breathtaking, exuberant high-wire act. This fairy tale (“Once there were two towers side by side”) did not end well, which is sorrowfully acknowledged in this book. But this book is a testament to the inspiration that one man drew from those quarter of a mile tall towers, and how he contributed to the legacy of the World Trade Center. The events mentioned in this book were the subject of the recent film, Man on Wire.
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