In 2001, after being suspended from school for fighting a bully, 9-year-old Brandon Chavez follows his dad to work at the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11. During the al-Qaida terrorist attack on the Twin Towers, Brandon is separated from his father and left with no choice but to find his own way out of the burning building -- without fully understanding the terror going on around him. In alternating chapters, we meet 11-year-old Reshmina in 2019 Afghanistan. Reshmina lives in a small village where ongoing battles between U.S. armed forces and the Taliban shape her everyday life. When she rescues an American solider, her village becomes the target of a Taliban attack.
If you have read an Alan Gratz novel before, you will not be disappointed by his newest title - a fast-pace blending of history, action, and commentary on current events. The heart-pounding pace picks up on the first page and never relents as we see two young people whose lives are in peril at every turn, building to a surprising twist ending. Gratz doesn't shy away from the, at times, horrifying realities of the September 11 attacks or of the ongoing violence of a village torn apart by war, and more sensitive readers may object to some of the more visceral elements of this novel. Gratz succeeds more in telling Brandon's story than Reshmina's, but young readers looking mostly for an action-packed 9/11 story need look no further.
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