It has been 25 years since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the deadliest in our nation’s history. There were 2,977 victims killed, including 40 in Pennsylvania, 184 at the Pentagon, and 2,750 in New York; 400 were first responders. Ramifications forever changed the world and the way we live within it. Yet, despite evil and devastation, the world also witnessed a united country and countless acts of heroism and grace. As we remember, please take some time to honor all the victims, their families and our nation.

All We Have Left by Wendy Mills is a young adult fiction, coming-of-age story about two teenage girls: Alia was 16 in 2001 and Jesse is 16 now. Both girls face heartbreak and seek hope. Their stories, tied together by 9/11, illustrate how “both hate and love have the power to reverberate into the future and beyond,” explains the book blurb.

Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust at Ground Zero by Michael Hingson is a memoir about his escape from the 78th floor of the north tower. Hingson, born blind, was a computer hardware sales manager. Together with his colleague David and his guide dog Roselle at his side, Hingson stayed calm and helped others all the way down Stairwell B and finally to safety shortly before the South Tower fell.

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction in 2007 and several other awards. The book intertwines the lives of four men: FBI counterterrorism chief John O’Neill, Prince Turki al-Faisal the former head of Saudi intelligence, and two al-Qaeda leaders, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, to give the reader unprecedented insights and intimacy to the people, plots and intelligence failures that lead to the 9/11 attacks.

Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story by Nora Raleigh Baskin. This middle grade chapter book begins in early September and weaves the stories of four middle schoolers from various parts of the country together as the 9/11 attacks approach. Each kid faces their own struggle as the world instantly changes when the Twin Towers fall.

Firehouse by David Halberstam brings the reader to Manhattan’s West Side, to Engine 40 and Ladder 35 fire companies, stationed together near Lincoln Center. Halberstam illustrates why brave individuals feel called to firefighting and describes the culture of the firehouse.

Just a Drop of Water by Kerry O’Malley Cerra is an award-winning children’s middle grade fiction book about two 13-year-old friends, one Christian and one Muslim in New York. Like the rest of the country, Jake and Sam’s lives are turned upside down when the 9/11 attacks happened.

American Phoenix: Heroes of the Pentagon on 9/11 by Lincoln M. Starnes was written 20 years post 9/11, after meticulous research. Starnes reveals untold stories of ordinary people at the Pentagon, who risked everything to help strangers during and in the aftermath of the attack.

Killing the Killers: The Secret War Against Terrorists by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard “narrates America’s intense global war against extremists who planned and executed not only the 9/11 attacks, but hundreds of others in America and around the world, and who eventually destroyed entire nations in their relentless quest for power,” states the book description.

The Man in the Red Bandanna by Honor Crowther Fagan is a children’s picture book, detailing the heroic actions of her 24-year-old brother Welles Crowther on 9/11. An equity trader and aspiring volunteer firefighter, he bravely helped numerous people down the south tower stairwell to safety, going up three times to save more people.

A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner is historical fiction that spans a century in New York, from the infamous 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire through 9/11 and into 2011 Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Separated by 100 years, Clara and Taryn both face disaster and tremendous personal loss, and both begin to rebuild their devastated lives; they are connected through time and grief by a scarf.

 

By Celeste McNeil; courtesy photos