This latest of Alan Gratz's historical fiction was chilling. The novel switches back and forth between the two main characters: Brandon, a 9-yr-old in NYC on 9/11/01 and Rashmina, a young girl in Afghanistan 20 years later. Brandon and his father are in the World Trade Center North Tower on the fateful morning. Brandon goes to a lower floor to buy something at the mall and so is not with his dad when the first plane hits the tower. His struggle to survive and get to his dad is frighteningly real and quite graphic. He witnesses the horror of it all. Rashmina has lived with war her whole life - the Taliban killing its own people and America killing Afghanis while trying to kill the Taliban. When she brings a wounded American soldier into her home, her twin brother vows to tell the Taliban and risks the lives of her whole family. Both stories were gripping. The lessons about wars you can't get out of, revenge, and collateral damage are important ones. However, it may be a bit much for an elementary school audience. It needs to be read. The graphic imagery, however, would be more safely handled with a middle-school audience. (FIC GRA)
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