Shelley Harwayne

“Messages to ground zero” was a really interesting book to read and I am so grateful I had the opportunity to read a book as special as this one. This book illustrates what students saw out of the windows of their school as the attacks of 9-11 were happening. I found this book so eye-opening for many reasons, but the main reason was because I was able to physically see what was going through the young children's minds as they witnessed one of the worst tragedies in US history. The show more pictures, words, and thoughts of the young children were all included in the book which made this book so personable and insightful. Another reason I found reading this literature and looking at the artwork so interesting was because it also took the teachers point of view into consideration as well, and showed us what they were going through too. In the book, the teacher keeps the students calm by telling the students, “it is going to be alright,” and by keeping the classroom relaxed and safe so that the affect on the students was limited to the best of the teachers abilities. A great example of what the teacher told the students to keep their spirits up was, “The sun was shining”, or “The birds are still chirping.” I liked this because regardless of the shock the teacher was feeling, her main priority was still keeping her students safe and calm which is so important. show less

This book is really something special. I really enjoyed it. I think this is a very insightful book into the hearts of children at the time of September 11th. My favorite part about this book was its authenticity. Each piece of poetry or art was done by a child at the time of September 11th and I think that is something that should be valued. The main idea here is to show that children knew what was going on. They may not have understood why it happened but they knew that their country was show more crumbling and these were their reactions. show less

I think that this is a great book for children. I like this book because it is all poems written by children. Each poem recounts their memories of that day and their questions about how something so terrible could happen. I think that by having children authors children are able to relate to the feelings that the students felt that day. I also like the illustrations. They were also created by children and I think this is a great addition to the poems. They depict what they saw and how they show more think things occurred. Overall, I think that the use of children works was a great way to remember September 11th. show less

emergent reader, 6 sentence book