Miller, Mara Remembering September 11, 2001:

Miller, Mara Remembering September 11, 2001: What We Know Now
Enslow 2010 112p 31.93
978-0-7660-2931-6 ms/jr September 11; Terroristic Attacks; Terrorism VG-BNS Issues in Focus Today(Enslow)


Re-visits the events of the terrorist hijackings of four U.S. airplanes on September 11, 2001, and places these in historical context.
A generation of children has been born since the World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon were destroyed, and Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania. Nearly ten years have passed since “9/11,” but America is still reacting to the events of that day. In the immediate aftermath, a spate of juvenile books were immediately released, and then most of the publishing world moved on. Mara Miller revisits the events of the terrorist hijackings of four U.S. airplanes on September 11, 2001, and offers a fresh perspective on the tragic events while placing them in historical context.

Miller describes rescue efforts at the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon, as well as passengers’ attempts to wrest a plane from hijackers over a field in Pennsylvania. She creates immediacy and personalizes history by including first-person narratives and stories that may not have been previously published.

A description of key historical events in the Middle East provides a context for the anti-U.S., sentiment present in the Middle East foreshadowing violent retaliation. Included is a biography of Osama bin Laden and the events in his life that prompted him to initiate the 9/11 attacks. The resulting “War on Terror,” continues through the present day, although the author does not focus on it. She directs her energy into explaining that what was clear after the attack was not clear beforehand. After the attack, Americans wanted answers.

Miller describes the efforts of the 9/11 Commission to search out the truth, its findings and the recommendations that came out of these reports to prevent similar attacks from happening in the future. In the meantime, people found ways to honor the dead and move toward healing. Photographs of memorials and descriptions of commemorative services provide testimony to the continuing impact of a single day in history.

Dramatic photographs, chapter notes, timeline , index, and glossary round out a well-researched, engaging text. Welliver, Hilary