Monday, April 12, 2021

Ground Zero by Alan Gratz

Ground Zero is the story of  the past and present, of 9/11 and the U.S. war on terror in 2019 told using two narratives. In the first narrative, it is September 11, 2001 and nine-year-old Brandon Chavez has to spend the day with his dad, Leo Chavez at the World Trade Center.  Brandon's father is a kitchen manager at the restaurant, Windows on the World, located at the very top of the North Tower, on the 107th floor.

Brandon and his father are a team, working together to survive, after the death of Brandon's mother from cancer, when he was only five years old. Getting into a fight at school was definitely not good for their team as Brandon was suspended. His father reminds him that fighting is not the way to deal with problems.

In the restaurant, Brandon is put to work filling flower vases on tables. When a fire breaks out in the kitchen, Brandon uses the distraction to slip into the elevator. His plan is to get to the underground mall to buy the Wolverine gloves his friend Cedric lost in the fight at school.

Brandon is in the elevator that only goes to the Sky Lobby on the 78th floor. After several people get on, the elevator begins swaying back and forth after a tremendous THOOM. Then the elevator begins sliding down and only stops when Brandon manages to hit the emergency stop button. When they call the emergency phone they learn that there was some kind of explosion on the 91st floor.

Black smoke begins creeping through the seems in the ceiling and the elevator begins getting very hot. Cellphones don't work. Brandon and the people trapped in the elevator struggle to free themselves by first forcing open the doors of the elevator and then chipping a hole through three layers of drywall.

Brandon manages to squeeze through the hole and onto the 85th floor where he runs to find help. With the help of some men from the bank, and a fireman's axe, they manage to break open a larger hole and rescue everyone from the elevator before it plummets down the shaft. When Marni, who was trapped in the elevator calls her husband she learns that a passenger jet has flown into the tower. While the rescued people decide to climb down 85 flights of stairs, Brandon decides to  head back upstairs to find his father. But Brandon has no idea of how catastrophic the damage is to the North Tower. Can he save himself and his father?

Alternating with Brandon's story is that of Reshmina, a young girl living with her family in a rural village in Afghanistan.  Her village is built into the mountainside with the houses stacked on top of each other. A long set of  switchback stairs cut into the rock offer the only way to reach her home. Eleven-year-old Reshmina lives with her parents, her anaa- grandmother, her older sister Marzia, her brother Pasoon and her little brother Zahir. Reshmina's eldest sister, Hila was killed when her wedding party was attacked by American's believing them to be Taliban.

Reshmina and Pasoon climb the rock stairs to their house, watching as the ANA and Americans search house to house. Pasoon is furious to see the Afghans taking orders from the Americans. Soon the soldiers are at Reshmina's home. A short, broad-shouldered American soldier tells them in English that they are not here to hurt them. Reshmina is thrilled to discovered she can understand him. Unlike Pasoon, she has continued with her English lessons at school. She's even more amazed to encounter an Afghan woman working as a translator for the Americans. None of the women Reshmina knows work outside the home: they are all wives, mothers, and daughters. The translator tells them that the Americans have been told there is a cache of Taliban weapons in the village.

Outside their home, the American soldier tells Baba, Pasoon and Reshmina they need to keep the Taliban out of their village. This makes both Reshmina and Pasoon angry as cooperating with either the Taliban or the Americans brings problems.

When Reshmina attempts to follow the group of soldiers so she can watch the Afghan translator, Pasoon tells her she can't and reveals that the Americans have been lured to their village as a trap by the Taliban. They plan to attack the Americans as they leave the village. Reshmina is shocked at the betrayal and what it means. But before she can tell anyone, the Taliban attack happens.

After the attack, Reshmina encounters a badly wounded American soldier, his face scorched and his eyes blinded. If he is found by the Taliban, they will kill him. Reshmina wants to slip away, but when he asks for help in English which she understands, she knows she cannot refuse. 

At her home, Reshmina's baba agrees to take in the wounded American. Reshmina realises that the soldier has the same small stuffed toy attached to his vest as the American soldier who searched their home only a few minutes earlier. He tells them his name is Taz, after the small stuffed Tasmanian Devil toy on his vest.

Reshmina's mother is horrified to see the soldier in her house. When Pasoon returns he is overjoyed at the success of the attack which killed everyone including the woman Afghan translator, Miriam. But when he sees the wounded American soldier, he is furious and determined to inform the Taliban. While Pasoon runs off, Baba assures Taz they will not let the Taliban take him.

Because Taz needs medical treatment at a hospital, Reshmina's father decides to travel to the ANA base, five kilometers away to let them know about Taz. But Reshmina knows she has to find Pasoon and stop him from joining the Taliban and telling them about Taz. If he tells them about their family hiding the American soldier, they and their village will be punished by the Taliban. Can Reshmina save Pasoon, Taz and their family

Discussion

Ground Zero is a fictional story about the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 and the ongoing American involvement in Afghanistan as a result of the terrorist attacks almost two decades ago. It is a story about how revenge leads to more war and loss, and how choosing a different path, that of working together makes for a better world.

Gratz connects the past event of 9/11 with the ongoing current events in Afghanistan through the use of alternating storylines. Nine-year-old Brandon Chavez finds himself in the North Tower, his father trapped at the very top, while he struggles to get to safety. Eighteen years later, eleven-year-old Reshmina struggles to prevent her brother from joining the Taliban and save her family from a retaliatory strike by American forces after a Taliban attack leaves an American soldier badly wounded. 

 Gratz aligns similar events in each narrative perhaps to demonstrate that war and violent acts have a particular economy - they play out much the same regardless of the country or the people or the cause, with death and destruction and often with many innocent victims.For example, when Brandon is buried in the rubble of the fallen tower, in the following chapter, Reshmina and her family and village are buried alive in the cave after an attack by the Americans. Brandon escapes to see the towers destroyed while Reshmina survives to see her entire village crumbling down the mountainside.

The novel also highlights how the innocent victims often have no understanding of the events they find themselves caught up in. While he's making his way down the stairs of the North Tower, Brandon is told about the 1993 bombing of the tower by terrorist who wanted the U.S. out of the Middle East. He wonders who is attacking them. "Brandon still didn't understand. What purpose did attacking the Twin Towers serve? Hurting all these innocent people." Eighteen years later, Reshmina also has no understanding of the war between the Taliban and the Americans nor of the 9/ll attacks. The pictures Taz shows her of the Twin Towers burning mean nothing to her, her parents, grandparents or the other elderly villagers. But the fear and loss Brandon experienced during the events of 9/11 are the same fear and loss that Reshmina experiences years later as the American soldiers fight the Taliban.

Reshmina's situation reminds Brandon of the lesson he learned that day years ago after surviving the 9/11 attack. Before the attack Brandon viewed his father and himself as being "against the world". But that changed. "It isn't me against the world, Brandon realized. It's everyone working together. And not against the world either, but for each other. That was how they survived." Reshmina reminds Taz that the U.S. needs to stop doing the kind of "helping" they are doing. "You can't help us by rebuilding villages and destroying them at the same time. " 

Ground Zero, published in time for the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, is a thoughtful treatment of the terrorist attacks and the War on Terror. Gratz is able to show the human cost while advocating through the character of Reshmina (and Taz ) for another path. At the end of the novel, Reshmina spots her brother Pasoon who waves to her, but she doesn't return his wave. Instead, she tells her baba they will choose another path - not only down the mountain but also a path different from the one Pasoon has chosen, which will only lead to more death and destruction.

Ground Zero is a thrilling read, with lots of tense moments. Well-written, this is another excellent novel for young readers by this outstanding author. Gratz is able to impart some of the history about the Twin Towers attacks through various characters and about Afghanistan through the character of Reshmina's grandmother who grew up in Kabul before the Soviet invasion. In this way, young readers become informed about these events and can consider current policies and actions within some context. The author has included significant resources at the back of the novel including a map of the World Trade Center and Afghanistan as well as a detailed Author's Note explaining the 9/11 attacks as well as the war in Afghanistan and America's current involvement.

Book Details:

Ground Zero by Alan Gratz
New York: Scholastic Press   2021
304 pp.

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