Kudos to Jewell Parker Rhodes for tackling such a heavy, difficult subject!! I tried to avoid rating this highly just because of that, but as far as I know this is one of the only middle grade fiction books on the Twin Towers. There’s definitely some merit in that. It did open up conversations with my kids, and for that I appreciate this book. 

There is room for improvement, however. It feels as if Rhodes was attempting to write a book specifically for teachers to teach in school. There’s nothing exactly wrong with that, but it is just obvious that’s what this is which can be a little distracting. She also seems to have attempted a few too many themes. For example, the issue of prejudice against Muslims was briefly touched on with Deja’s friend Sabeen, but then it just kind of dropped out of the story. I’m also not entirely sure where Deja’s unhoused status was supposed to come in, except perhaps as a reflection of just how much her father was struggling with PTSD? I don’t know, it just seemed like too many threads that didn’t weave together well. 

Still, great POV on the towers and a great jumping off point for discussion.