An Enduring Testament

When tragedy strikes our home, community, state, or country, we mark it with a memory. We cannot forget what we were doing when it happened.  Some of the tragedies are profound enough the whole world remembers along with us.  The events in the United States on September 11, 2001, are unforgettable.

The news, as quietly as possible, flew from classroom to classroom at our elementary school.  Adult staff members tried to proceed through the day as normally as possible although our hearts were heavy.  After school we gathered with our principal, many of us tears streaming down our faces.  It seems impossible this was twenty years ago.  Survivor Tree (Little, Brown And Company, August 31, 2021) written by Marcie Colleen with illustrations by Aaron Becker notes those events with an extraordinary story.  Nature finds a way.

A TREE STOOD STEEL-STRAIGHT AND PROUD

at the foot of the towers that filled the sky.

This Callery pear tree reflected the seasons.  From bare branches to blooming branches to boughs laden with green and then red, it shifted with the changing months.  For three decades it grew and lived, untouched.

In September, on a brilliant blue-sky day, normalcy for this tree, its surroundings, and the humans in its city was blasted aside.  Amid the destruction, the tree appeared to be a skeleton of its former self.  Then, hope spoke.  Those clearing the devastation found green sprouts on the branches of the tree.

In its broken, but hopeful state, the tree was placed in a new space.  Through winter and spring, it stayed the same, until new life unexpectedly appeared.  The tree again reflected the seasons for nearly ten years.

When the next winter came, the tree was taken to its original place.  The towers, two, were gone.  The tree was there, a visible, living testament to the tragedy and hopeful strength.  From old scarred, bark smooth growth extended.

The text written by Marcie Colleen reads like poetry.  A single sentence vividly describes the tree's presence in each season until that catastrophic September day.  The cadence stops as stunned as the world was.  Again single, carefully penned phrases (sometimes two) follow the tree's journey, until changes necessitate more words.  We feel the rhythm of the story through the use of repetition.  It brings us back to winter, spring, summer, and fall with a renewed perspective.  Here is a passage.

Two stone blocks were placed in its stunted shadow---

a memorial of makeshift towers in a makeshift home.

No longer stretching tall,

the tree reached deep in the warm earth,

and all was quiet.  

(Please note I am working with an F & G.  My copy has not arrived yet.)

When you open the dust jacket, the choice of hues blankets you in calm.  The illustration of the Survivor Tree as it stands today at the 9/11 Memorial continues across the spine and over the fold of the front flap.  Notice the trunks of the other trees and the similarly colored shapes representing the aluminum and steel lattice tridents on the towers.  As they move toward the sky their shades are muted.

To the left, on the back, an image of the memorial is presented.  It is as if we are standing there.  On the bottom we can see portions of names around a white rose.  Above this is one of the two pools.  The words,

EVEN IN THE DARKEST OF TIMES,

COLOR WILL ALWAYS

RETURN TO THE WORLD

are shown as our eyes move to the top.  Trees in autumn rise in front of buildings and a sky with some clouds.

(If you go to the illustrator's Instagram account you can see the stunning book case as he unboxes his copies from the publisher.)

The endpapers, quotation page, dedication and title pages, pages of notes, and publication information pages are awash in colors depicting the different times of day and seasons of the year.  Floating through them as if on a breeze are leaves.  They, too, mirror the times of day and seasons of the year in their hues.  The title page is a double-page illustration, a breathtaking view of New York City as if we are arriving by water with the Statue of Liberty on our left and the skyline spread before her.  The Survivor Tree glows in front of the Twin Towers.  

These images by artist Aaron Becker were rendered

in watercolor and colored pencil on 300 lb. hot press watercolor paper.

On heavier, matte-finished paper these double-page pictures convey a range of emotions.  Aaron Becker enhances the beautiful narrative by pictorially supplying another story, a human story, within the tale of the tree.  This story follows a family through photographs initially. 

Every time you read this book; you will see more included details in Aaron Becker's visuals.  He employs cutaways to show the roots of the tree.  Seasons blend from one side of the page to the other.  What will each reader see on the pages before the crashes?  For emphasis Aaron Becker alters his perspectives.  We are brought close to the hand caressing the green on the broken tree.  As the tree is brought to the memorial, it is a more panoramic view with lots of sky.  One wordless illustration is breathtaking.

One of my many favorite pictures is toward the closing of the book.  We are close to the tree, it's trunk on the left and multiple branches extending up and out to the right-page edge.  It is autumn.  We can see the leaves tinged with muted red, orange, yellow, and purple.  Their backs to us, a father and his daughter reach toward one of the branches.  The daughter's left hand and arm rests on her father's right shoulder.  Together they touch history and hope.

With every reading the richness of Survivor Tree written by Marcie Colleen with illustrations by Aaron Becker envelopes you.  Viewing this tree's story through the poetic words by the author and the striking artwork, with an added pictorial interpretation, by the illustration creates a promise.  It's a promise we can hold in our hands.  At the close of the book is more information about the Survivor Tree and an author's and an illustrator's notes.  I highly recommend this title for your personal and professional collections.

To discover more about Marcie Colleen and Aaron Becker and their other work, please visit their respective websites by following the link attached to their names.  Marcie Colleen has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Aaron Becker has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.  At the publisher's website there is a video/podcast with Aaron Becker talking about his artwork for this title and a podcast with Marcie Colleen speaking about her writing for this book.  At author, reviewer, and blogger, Julie Danielson's website, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, this title is showcased.  At author and teacher librarian Travis Jonker's School Library Journal, 100 Scope Notes, website is the cover reveal and a question and answer with both the author and the illustrator.

UPDATE:  Please enjoy this Five questions for Marcie Colleen and Aaron Becker in The Horn Book on September 8, 2021.

Remembering Then, Living Now, Hoping For Tomorrow

For those people directly affected by a natural disaster or an epic event triggered by a single person or group of individuals, we cannot truly understand the depth of the emotional or physical impact.  As observers our response is based upon our own life experiences.  If we have a connection to those persons involved our reaction will be definitely heightened.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, as a nation our way of life changed irrevocably.  For those able we listened or watched in stunned silence.  In our elementary school, all staff maintained, as best as we could for the children, a business-as-usual kind of day.  At a subsequent meeting many of us were openly weeping at the staggering number of lives lost.  

In six days we will mark the fifteenth anniversary of 9/11, the deadliest attack in history on the United States.  The Memory of Things (St. Martin's Griffin, September 6, 2016) by Gae Polisher provides an intimate portrait of two teenagers in New York City on that Tuesday morning.  As their two stories unfold and intertwine we are in the midst of their lives prior to and during the following four days.

  

Tuesday Morning, 9.11.01

BIRD

I move with the crowd, away from downtown Manhattan.

We travel swiftly but don't run, panicked but steady, a molten lava flow of bodies across the bridge.

A crash of thunder erupts---another explosion?---and the flow startles and quickens.  Someone near me starts to cry, a choked, gasping sound, soon muted by a new wail of sirens rising at my back.  

Kyle Donahue, a student at Stuyvesant High School in Lower Manhattan is crossing the Brooklyn Bridge toward home, having been evacuated from his school building.  As he walks, stunned by seeing the collapse of the South Tower, he glimpses large wings on something crouched near one of the bridge's pillars.  Concerned it needs help, he turns around to go back, regardless of the urgings of others. What he thought was a bird he discovers is a girl near his age, looking as though she means to fly away.  She is coated in ash and dust with bits of metal in her hair.

Eventually Kyle is able to persuade her to come with him, making their way to his family's apartment in Brooklyn Heights.  Kyle's father is a detective with the New York City police and a member of the Joint Terrorist Task Force.  His mother and younger sister are scheduled to fly home from California this morning.  His uncle Matt, a former member of the New York City police department, is living with them recovering from a crippling accident earlier in the spring.  Kyle has no idea who the girl is.  She can't remember her name.  

The girl's voice within the narrative is written in free verse.  At first there are only seemingly unconnected bits and pieces of memory she can gather.  As hours and days pass a more complete picture of the Tuesday morning and her past are revealed; an overwhelming loss, a special place, a lack of understanding and words said in anger. 

Conversations between Kyle and the girl, his Uncle Matt, his dad and his mom when the phones work, and his Uncle Paul, also a member of the New York City police force, depict a very clear picture of family dynamics even though we still don't know who the girl is, why she was by the twin towers or where she lives.  Tension builds as one day stretches into the next.  Kyle is the anchor at home, taking care of his wheelchair-bound uncle.  He knows he should report the girl to missing persons or take her to the appropriate authorities but he also wants her to stay.  Kyle still has not told his dad about the girl. 

When and if Kyle's dad comes home decisions need to be made.  Personalities of those important people in Kyle's life are no longer quite the same.  In those few days a boy and a girl bond in a situation not likely to be replicated in their futures.  There is much love.  There is much loss.  There is a great deal of fear.   Within the larger story of 9/11 individual stories weave together heading toward a conclusion readers could not have predicted.   

Exquisite writing by Gae Polisner completely captives the reader from the first to final pages. (I read this book in a single seating.)  She supplies explicit details of the day to day events through Kyle's thoughts, his conversations with the girl as well as during conversations between family members.  The dialogue between all the characters rings true also revealing to us little by little the lives of each character and the values they hold in their hearts before and after that Tuesday.  We get a true sense of the shift in indivdual outlooks.  The past flawlessly flows into the present.  

The choice to depict the girl's voice in free verse adds suspense to an already unprecedented situation.  We are privy to her temporary amnesia, her few and scattered recollections, which build little by little to longer phrases, more complete memories.  But Polisner does not allow us to understand, along with the girl, until near the end.  This is brilliant.

Another writing technique employed in this story is the use of parts, eight, instead of chapters.  Within each part are smaller sections denoted with several words or a single word.  This ties readers in a personal way to the text.   Here are some sample passages from the ARC I received.

Wait to fall

but don't

Am tethered here

Turn.

A boy shouts,

eyes full of terror.

He grabs hold of me

(an explosion

a ball of fire rising to the sky...

flames

everywhere).

Pull away from his grip, but he won't

let go.

A fresh round of banging and machinery starts up in the background.  "Okay, I've got to go, kid.  Give Matty a kiss for me.  I'm proud of you."  He stops.  No, not stops.  My badass dad is crying.  I wait for his regular voice to return again, normal, safer sounding.  But instead he says, "And stay inside, you hear me?  Don't go anywhere.  Not until we know for sure what's going on."

"Okay, I promise," I say.  And, though I know I shouldn't, I ask, "Are you sure you're going to be all right?"

"I hope so, kid.  I think so.  The military is all over it now.  But I don't know when I'll be home.  Not tonight.  So hold down the fort."

"Okay, we will."  My eyes dart down the hall.  Me, Uncle Matt, and the bird girl.  "Do what you need to do," I say.  "I'll let Mom know now."

He hangs up.  I let out a shaky breath and wait for my mother to call back.

And for one split second, as I look up at her, I forget about everything else except for her and me, and this moment.  About the two of us doing this silly little unimportant thing together.

I forget about the planes and the buildings and worrying about my dad.

I forget about Uncle Matt's accident, and that he's stuck in a wheelchair.

I forget the girl is a stranger, and I don't even know her name.

I forget about Jenny Lynch's dad and Bangor's uncle.  I forget about Marcus and civil wars in countries far away.

I forget that this day isn't normal, that yesterday wasn't normal, that the whole world as we know it has stopped; that's there's a weird, hushed pall across the city.  Across the nation.  And I forget that, at least here in New York, we don't know when---or if---it will ever be normal again.

For one split second I forget.

For those readers who can remember the events of 9/11 this story and these characters will become a part of those thoughts.  The Memory of Things written by Gae Polisner is an outstanding young adult novel; one you will want to read and recommend repeatedly. In an author's note at the end Gae, who lives with her family on Long Island, New York, speaks about her personal experiences before and after September 11, 2001.  Her final paragraph and her final sentence will long resonate.

To learn more about Gae Polisner please follow the link attached to her name to access her website.  Gae maintains entries on Tumblr.  At the Nerdy Book Club Gae reveals the cover along with comments by her, the cover designer and her editor.  At the publisher's website you can read an excerpt.

I was fortunate enough to hear Gae Polisner and Nora Raleigh Baskin speak at nErDcampMI 2016 in a session titled Healing Through Words: Two Authors discuss 9/11 and Coping with Tragedy through a writer's lens.  I encourage you to read the middle grade book, Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story written by Nora Raleigh Baskin.  

One of my fav things about THE MEMORY OF THINGS (out 9/6) is the comic relief that comes from the Cow & Chicken scenes. So. . .

— gae polisner (@gaepol) September 1, 2016

UPDATE:  A teacher's guide has now been provided by the publisher.  

To Be Remembered...Always

Catastrophic events shared by survivors and witnesses make indelible marks on our minds. These horrific happenings change all our lives, the way we knew life, forever.  Nothing will not, cannot, be the same.

People tend to remember where they were and who they were with vividly.  On November 22, 1963 in the early afternoon I was with my seventh grade classmates on the second floor of our junior high school, an old brick building.  We were seated in Mr. York's math class when we were interrupted with a stunning announcement over the P. A. system.   President John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been assassinated.

On September 11, 2001 I was seated in my office with my assistant.  It was the first full year we were in our newly constructed library media center at the elementary school.  A bank of windows stretching across one side looked out over the playground and behind that into the woods.  I noticed deer frequently walking by on the weekends and evenings when I worked.  In the morning between classes our phone rang.  It was my assistant's daughter telling us to turn on our television set immediately.  We both ran out of the office across the room.  We stood watching in horrified silence and then in tears.  Over the course of the next few hours and the following days the sadness for the lives lost, nearly three thousand, during those attacks deepened.  We were all overwhelmed with grief.

For our children, our students, not yet born during 9/11 there are stories to be told they need to hear.  Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story (Atheneum Books For Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, June 28, 2016) written by Nora Raleigh Baskin is one of those stories.  It's a tapestry formed by the threads of four young people's lives.

Everyone will mention the same thing, and if they don't, when you ask them, they will remember.  It was a perfect day.

The first two pages describe a scenario of the remarkable beauty of the morning of September 11, 2001 before 8:46 am.  The next chapter begins on September 9, 2001 in an airport, O'Hare International Airport, located in Chicago.  We are introduced to Sergio, an African-American boy leaving Chicago after receiving an award, who lives with his grandmother in Brooklyn, Naheed, a twelve-year-old Muslim girl waiting for visiting family to arrive, Aimee, a Jewish girl moving to California with her parents to begin her seventh grade year but her mother has unexpectedly been asked to go to New York City for her new job and Will, traveling with his mom and two sisters, returning from a trip to Disney World to their home in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.  It is the one year anniversary of Will's dad's death.  Briefly their paths intersect.

In alternating chapters we become further acquainted with each character.  We follow their thoughts, conversations and activities on September 10, 2001.  Each one of them is facing emotional hurdles.  Each one of them is being challenged by circumstances over which they have little control and choices they need to make.

Sergio confronted by his past skips a day of school, meeting a man who will profoundly change his life. Naheed, teased by boys in her science class about her hajib, regrets a response made to her lab partner.  Girls at her new school have Aimee wondering if her parents are headed for divorce.  A bike ride after school does not go as expected with Will's friends and Claire, a girl whose affections he wants to win.

These seemingly normal happenings are not quite usual in the context of these characters' lives as we are given more elements to their stories.  Each new detail adds to the growing tension before September 11, 2001.  On that unforgettable day you will hardly dare to breathe as you turn the pages. As you read about September 11, 2002, at Ground Zero, New York City, your heart will sing with hope.


At nErDcampMI 2016 I was one of the fortunate ones able to attend the session Healing Through Words: Two Authors discuss 9/11 and Coping with Tragedy through a writer's lens by Gae Polisner and Nora Raleigh Baskin.  I knew before hearing their words of the meticulous research and painstaking attention to detail given to this topic by reading Baskin's story of Sergio, Naheed, Aimee and Will.  Her ability to describe their individual worlds with clarity and insight help us to connect and identify with each of them.  Although they were each distinctly different in their backgrounds and cultural heritage, Baskin allowed us to see universal commonalities.  They are all Americans.

Of particular interest in her writing technique is beginning with reflections about the morning of September 11, 2001, then moving back two days, then one day and then to the day of the attacks.   Adding to the underlying tension are the chapter headings of the date, exact time and geographical location.  We move through time zones and between Brooklyn, New York, Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Los Angeles, California and Columbus, Ohio. The final chapter one year later is poignant and extremely relevant.

In making her characters more fully alive to readers Baskin includes conversations with family members, friends and classmates.  The narrative text is a running commentary about each specific situation along with particular thoughts in italics for emphasis.  Here are several sample passages.

"I'll take an English muffin if you'll make one.  I gotta go back up and get my sneakers," Will said.
His mother burst into action, fussing like a frantic chicken.  She was almost more at ease when she was rushing about nervously.  When Will came back downstairs, she was standing with his breakfast wrapped in foil.  
"You're so good to me," she said.
So he hadn't fooled anyone pretending to be hungry.  His mother kissed him on the cheek and then pushed him toward the front door.  There was an invisible wall between the world out there, where his father's death wasn't ever-present, and the world in here, where it always was.  Will felt it blocking him, tugging at him every time he had to leave the house.

"Yeah, Naheed.  Why do you have to wear that?  Isn't it hot under there?" Tommy asked.
It wasn't.
Sebastian laughed.  "I remember in third grade when you first wore it.  I thought you had lost all your hair, like you were sick or something.  Isn't that crazy?"
Yes. In fact, Naheed had long and very thick black hair.  It was one of the things she loved about herself.  It was just like her mother's.
"So why do you, Naheed?" Eliza asked one more time.
Wearing pajamas to school might have been better than this.  The last thing she wanted to do was explain why.  It was as if all of a sudden Naheed was a giant in the room with an endless skein of cotton on her head and everyone was staring at her, and it.


Nine Ten: A September 11 Story written by Nora Raleigh Baskin will capture your attention from the first page to the very last sentence.  Once started you won't be able to stop reading until you have it finished.  I highly recommend it to individual readers and as a class read aloud.  At the close of the book in seven pages Baskin supplies further explanations in her author's note and acknowledgments.

To learn more about Nora Raleigh Baskin and her other work please follow the link attached to her name to access her website.  At the publisher's website an excerpt from the book is available for you to read.  At the Nerdy Book Club site Nora Raleigh Baskin talks about this book in a post.

Nora Raleigh Baskin has placed a post on her blog inviting educators to share their 9/11 stories.   This is an opportunity not be be missed.