So heartbreaking. I loved this book but it ripped me apart!

This was an incredible book about the lives of different children from different parts of the US in the days leading up to 9/11.

** spoiler alert ** Nine, Ten was well-written and I liked it. At the beginning of the book, it felt like an I Survived story with less action and for older readers. The story had excellent diversity and a variety of perspectives from different parts of America. What I didn’t like was the lack of focus on the day itself and its aftermath. A majority of Nine, Ten was about the lives of the children on the days leading up to September 11. Then, after describing the tragedy, it skipped to a year later. I felt like the author lost a good teaching opportunity by skipping the aftermath.

SPOILER ALERT


Also, I thought the author should have had at least one person in the story lose someone. As close as the four kids were to the attacks that day, I thought the story would have been more realistic and powerful if it described the losses through one child’s eyes.

However, Baskin at least addressed that choice in her afterword. Still, I felt that it did her audience a disservice - like she may have thought that they couldn’t handle it or something similar.


END SPOILER

Overall, it was a book that I think children will enjoy reading, and they will learn from it, too.