"Once There Were Two Towers": Describing Tragedy to Children after 9/11

It is important to note that not all children’s books follow this pattern of continuity that involves shunning explicit description and explanation and leaving that role to adult readers. Yet it is books such as Fireboat and The Man Who Walked Between the Towers that have received recognition and celebration as exceptional picture books on the subject of 9/11. “I think the [books] that will do the best are the ones that are not as specific,” one bookseller noted just before the first anniversary of the attacks.29 Both The Man Who Walked Between the Towers and Fireboat exemplify this notion in their success. These award-winning books minimize the attacks by placing them in a broader temporal and narrative context. They make it a priority to offer comfort to their audience, while still engaging the events to a far greater degree than those books designed simply for bibliotherapy such as Waber’s Courage. Despite this engagement with history, their function is not instructive. Kalman confronts the events far more directly than Gerstein, yet both authors deemphasize the historical, and offer minimal description of or explanation for September 11th, allowing the reader (adults and teachers) to fill that role and promote discussion.

Given the substantial role that adults play in selecting such books, it is important to consider the degree to which parents and teachers might project their own anxieties on to children. The feelings of rupture that so predominate the discourse of 9/11 may translate into a desire for a sense of continuity that can be conveyed to children, thus offering solace to both reader and audience. As Rycik points out “Very few books and articles have been written that address bibliotherapy for specific world events.”30 Consequently, it is difficult to know for certain whether these types of narratives engage 9/11 in a way that is the most beneficial to children. Regardless, these narratives make it clear that their priority is to provide a sense of comfort and continuity to their audience of young children. Kalman and Gerstein attempt to provide hope for the future by rooting their narratives in the past; they share an abiding faith in the ability of books to help children deal with trauma. As Kalman writes in the end of Fireboat, "Something new will be built. The heroes who died will be remembered forever.”31 This sentiment is as much hopeful as it is factual and reveals our understandable desire to offer empathy and protection in the face of frightening and unfamiliar times. 

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American Library Association. “The Randolph Caldecott Medal.” http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/aboutcaldecott/aboutcaldecott.cfm, December 26, 2008.

Connelly, Paula T. “Retelling 9/11: How Picture Books Re-envision National Crises.” Lion & The Unicorn. 32.3 (Sept 2008): 288-303.

Cornett, C.E. & C.F. Cornett. Bibliotherapy: The Right Book at the Right Time. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 1980.

Gerstein, Mordicai. The Man Who Walked Between the Towers. New York: Square Fish, 2003.

Kalman, Maira. Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of John J. Harvey. New York: Putnam Juvenile, 2002.

Houghton Mifflin Books. “What is courage?” http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks/authors/waber, December 27, 2008.

Kleinfeld, N.R. “U.S. Attacked; Hijacked Jets Destroy Twin Towers and Hit Pentagon in Day of Terror.” New York Times. September 12, 2001: A1.

McMath, J. S. “Young children, national tragedy, and picture books.” Young Children, 52, 2002.

Poffenberger, Nancy. September 11, 2001: A Simple Account for Children.  Cincinnati, OH: Fun Pub., 2002.

Roback, Diane. “Selling 9/11 Books for Kids.” Publishers Weekly. 249.34 (August 26, 2002): 24-27.

Rycik, Mary Taylor. “9/11 to the Iraq War: Using Books to Help Children Understand Troubled Times.” Childhood Education. 82.3 (Spring 2006): 145-152.

Waber, Bernard. Courage. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co, 2002.

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1.) Kleinfeld, N.R. “U.S. Attacked; Hijacked Jets Destroy Twin Towers and Hit Pentagon in Day of Terror.” New York Times Online. September 12, 2001: A1.

2.) According to Mary Taylor Rycik, “Bernstein (1977) found that reading books as a form of therapy (bibliotherapy) gave children the opportunity to identify with others undergoing the same problems, helped them realize that they were not alone, provided catharsis, and facilitated the process of sharing their problems with others. Stamps (2003) suggests that books have the power to help students escape momentarily from a troubled world, and also to cope with problems…”

Rycik, Mary Taylor. “9/11 to the Iraq War: Using Books to Help Children Understand Troubled Times.” Childhood Education. 82.3 (Spring 2006): 145.

3.) American Library Association. “The Randolph Caldecott Medal.” http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/aboutcaldecott/aboutcaldecott.cfm, December 26, 2008.

4.) Connelly, Paula T. “Retelling 9/11: How Picture Books Re-envision National Crises.” Lion & The Unicorn. 32.3 (Sept 2008): 288.

5.) Roback, Diane. “Selling 9/11 Books for Kids.” Publishers Weekly. 249.34 (August 26, 2002): 25.

6.) For the purpose of this paper, I use the term bibliotherapy to refer generally to reading with the goal of providing emotional comfort and healing. Bibliotherapy is not strictly a therapeutic process used in a clinical setting but can also include the simple act of an adult reading to a child. It is the objective of the reading and not the setting that defines bibliotherapy.

7.) Waber, Bernard. Courage. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co, 2002. Unpaged.

8.) Houghton Mifflin Books. “What is courage?” http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks/authors/waber, December 27, 2008.

9.) Gerstein, Mordicai. The Man Who Walked Between the Towers. New York: Square Fish, 2003, unpaged.

10.) The picture book has a complex relationship with its audience given that adults are the ones that usually choose, purchase and read them aloud. Throughout this paper, I make the assumption that the “reader” is separate from the “audience” and that teachers and parents are the ones usually responsible for reading these works to children.

11.) Connelly, pg. 294.

12.) Connelly, pg. 291.

13.) Roback, pg. 24.

14.) The Horn Book. “Boston Gloe – Horn Book Award Acceptance.” http://www.hbook.com/magazine/articles/2004/jan04_kalman.asp, December 28, 2008.

15.) Connelly, pg. 297.

16.) Roback, pg. 25.

17.) Kalman, Maira. Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of John J. Harvey. New York: Putnam Juvenile, 2002. Unpaged.

18.) Gerstein, unpaged.

19.) In Gerstein, the phrase appears as “Now the towers are gone,” and in Kalman it reads “Now the Twin Towers are gone.”

20.) Kalman, unpaged.

21.) Roback, pg. 25.

22.) McMath, J. S. “Young children, national tragedy, and picture books.” Young Children, 52, 2002, pg. 82.

23.) Connelly, pg. 289.

24.) Kalman, unpaged.

25.) Gerstein, unpaged.

26.) Amazon.com. “The Man Who Walked Between the Towers.” December 26, 2008.

27.) Gerstein, unpaged.

28.) Connelly, pg. 294.

29.) Roback, pg. 25.

30.) Rycik, pg. 145.

31.) Kalman, Maira. Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of John J. Harvey. New York: Putnam Juvenile, 2002. Unpaged.