Eleven

It is unbelievable to me that in just a few weeks, we will mark the 15th anniversary of the attacks of September 11th. Students that I see in the library will never know the raw emotion of that horrific day. Everyone always says, "Never Forget", but maybe we have a little. Maybe forgotten is the wrong word. We will never forget if we were old enough to remember that day. We will always remember where we were, what we were doing and how we felt. Just like the generations before when it comes to the Challenger explosion or the assassination of JFK.

What do we tell our students? What do we tell our own kids to stress the importance of what happened that day and how it changed the world? Fortunately for us, we have the book, Eleven, by Tom Rogers.

Eleven is a beautifully written story about a boy, Alex, who is turning 11 on September 11 and all he wants is a dog - his "birthday dog".  His mother is a nurse and father is a drives the PATH train into Manhattan and his birthday doesn't turn out as he had planned.  After his last words the night before to his dad were, "I hate you", Alex tries to make a deal with God to get his dad home safely only to have his end of the deal fall apart. Alex meets a man who tells him, "Sometimes when a terrible thing happens, it can make a beautiful thing seem even more precious."

Young people today will be able to feel the emotions that all of us felt on that tragic day. They will be able to get a sense of what someone their age was feeling and seeing and hearing. I was on my way to work as an 8th grade teacher when I heard the first tower had been hit on the radio. Eleven brought me back to that morning and the feeling of udder helplessness. It also let me remember how our nation came together to support each other any way we could. We made it a point to check in with our neighbors, we smiled at strangers, we slowed down and appreciated life and one another. Out of an incomprehensible tragedy came love. Maybe when you read this book, you will remember that we stood as one together, not against each other as we do today. Please don't let it take another horrific event for us to remember that. Show each other love....

Eleven by Tom Rogers