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.

The Orange Grove by Larry Tremblay

The Orange Grove is an exploration into the ideology of terrorism and its consequences. The novel opens with the bombing of nine-year-old twins, Amed and Aziz's home in an unnamed country. The bomb which came from the other side of the mountains where their long-time enemies live, destroyed their grandparents home. Their father Zahed's parents, Mounir and Shahina were killed when the bomb roared through the side of their house. The bombing happened three days after Aziz had returned home from the city with his father. Zahed had taken his son Aziz who was very sick to the hospital, only to learn he has terminal cancer. 

Amed and Aziz's mother Tamara has a sister, Dalimah who lives in America and who is married to a man from the other side of the mountain. Because the people on the other side of the mountain are their enemies and they have been at war with them, Zahed and Tamara do not trust Dalimah. On the day Zahed and Aziz returned home from the hospital, Tamara received a letter from Dalimah encouraging her to come to America with the twins. Tamara of course has no intention of going to America and she considers her sister's husband to be a liar who has told terrible things about them to the people in America.

Zahed has just finished burying his parents in the orange grove when a jeep with three men arrived. One is Halim, whom Amed and Aziz know from the village school and his father Kamal but the other man with a machine gun is unknown. Amed and Aziz are sent to their room while Zahed and Tamara speak with the men. The next day Zahed tells Amed and Aziz that the man with the machine gun is Soulayed. He is from a neighbouring village and is well educated. Their father tells them that Soulayed wanted to see the ruins of their grandparent's home. Soulayed also informs Zahed that homes in nearby villages have been destroyed and that these attacks are merely the prelude to invading their country and enslaving their children. Zahed shows the boys the canvas belt Soulayed left behind but offers no explanation as to what it is.

A week after the bombing, Zahed calls Amed and Aziz into the orange grove where he spends "twelve hours a day pruning, watering and checking every tree." Tamara refuses to come. She has acknowledged the hatred that exists among the men of her country and asks that God not take both her sons. Zahed tells his sons that Halim is going to die. He has gone to the south to blow himself up with a belt of explosives. Zahed then relates what Soulayed has told him: that his sons have found a way to reach the other side of the mountain that borders their land in the north and which separates them from their enemies. Soulayed knows this from Halim who was told by Aziz and Amed. When Zahed asks if this is true Amed and Aziz say nothing. Zahed lets his sons know that Soulayed will return to speak with them soon.

Soulayed returns to the orange grove and takes the twins in his jeep to the base of the mountain where he tells them what Halim has told him. The boys were flying their kite near the mountain which they were not allowed to do when the string broke and the kite vanished over the other side. To retrieve the kite they climbed the mountain. Amed tells Soulayed that they had to retrieve the kite otherwise their father would have been angry as the kite was a gift from their grandfather. The boys found "a ghost of a road snaking through the rocks" and followed it to the top where they saw "a strange kind of town" on the other side. Soulayed tells them what they saw was a military installation and that it was God who broke the kite's string and led them to see this. However Amed tells Soulayed that he only told Halim that their kite had flown near the mountain.

Soulayed continues to impress upon the boys that because the area around the mountain and the path are mined, "God broke your kite string and God guided your steps on the mountain." He tells them that others have tried to get to the town but have been blown up. As a result Soulayed has decided that one of the brothers will return to the town in a few days wearing a belt of explosives to destroy the installation.

The boys return home wondering which of them will be chosen by their father to wear the belt and in the meantime they play at blowing themselves up in the orange grove. Zahed tells Tamara that he has decided that it be Amed who will wear the explosives belt. Zahed reasons that since Aziz will die because of his cancer "it will not be a sacrifice if he wore the belt." Tamara is filled with pain and she concocts a plan to thwart Zahed sacrificing their healthy son, Amed. That night she awakens Amed and reveals to him that his father will choose him to wear the canvas belt to avenge his parents' deaths. She tells Amed that Aziz is very ill and will die from his illness. So she asks Amed to persuade Aziz to take his place and wear the belt. Tamara does not want to loose both her sons, one to illness and one to being blown to bits. However, Amed refuses, despite his mother's assertion that Aziz will suffer greatly from his sickness. The next day Zahed takes Amed to the tool shed where he tells him that Soulayed will return in a few days and take him to the foot of the mountain. He will wear the belt. Zahed also tells Amed that he has chosen him because Aziz is very sick. He encourages his son to love the belt and to get used to wearing it.

After Zahed leaves, Aziz enters the shed and Amed admits to his brother that he is scared to die. Aziz offers to go in his place, but at first Amed refuses. When they return to the house, Amed tells his mother he has done as she asks. Tamara's plan, although saving the life of one son, will bring about tragic and unforeseen consequences.

Discussion

The Orange Grove presents the twisted logic that is characteristic of terrorism, radical ideologies and war. Author Larry Tremblay is careful never to identify the religious sect that Zahed and Tamara and their family belong to or to name the country they live in. Instead he uses beliefs that are common to many religions but which are taken to extreme.

Zahed and his wife Tamara and their twin sons, Amed and Aziz live in a country that is at war with a neighbouring country on the other side of the mountain. A bomb from that country destroys Zahed's parent's home, killing them. They are visited soon after by a soldier, Soulayed from another village who manipulates Zahed into sacrificing one of his sons so as to avenge the killing of his parents. To help with this, Soulayed brings fifteen-year-old Halim and his father, Kamal with him to speak with Zahed. Kamal first praises Zahed telling him his father, Mounir must have been "in harmony with God" to be able to grow the orange grove out of the desert. He also notes that Zahed is twice blessed with twin boys. He tells Zahed he was angry at Halim's decision to become a suicide bomber but after having seen the destruction of Zahed's parent's home he now understands Halim's choice. Soulayed tells Zahed, "Revenge is the name of your grief."

To impress his sons, Zahed tells them that Soulayed is "an important man" who "talked to me with his heart" and that "He's a pious man. An educated man." In other words, he is a man to be respected and whose words are important. In order to convince Amed and Aziz of what he is about to ask them, Soulayed tells them that their kite breaking was an act of God. "He broke it so that things would come to pass as they must." Soulayed states "...God broke your kite's string and now it's their own death they're warehousing." He also informs them that their climbing the mountain was miraculous especially since no one else has been able to climb this mountain because it is mined. "A miracle: that's what really happened on that day. God broke your kite string and God guided your steps on the mountain." After informing them that they have been chosen to wear the belt of explosives Soulayed states, "God has chosen you. God has blessed you."

Later on Soulayed comes to the farm bringing money for Zahed and he tells Amed, "You know, Amed, what's going to happen is both sad and happy. You understand, right? But you, you must be only happy. You're going to die a martyr. You are three times blessed." The night before Amed is to leave for the mountain, Zahed invites his neighbours and two employees to his house to celebrate, explaining that Amed will soon be a martyr. "All saw this invitation as an honour being bestowed upon them."

But despite all of his indoctrination, Amed is terrified. But Soulayed admonishes him, "...Think of our enemies! Think of what they did to your grandparents!" He is told not to dishonour his father and to "Think of Paradise!" Tamara is the only one who sees war for what it truly is. She recognizes that for the men of her country, "It's hatred that keeps their bones in place. Without hatred they would collapse and never get up again." In an attempt to save at least one of her sons, she convinces Amed to switch places with Aziz. Aziz will be the bomber because he's going to die from cancer anyways. She recognizes what she's asking Amed to do is horrible. "What's the use of bringing children into the world if it's just to sacrifice them like poor animals being sent to the slaughterhouse?" When the neighbours come to celebrate before Amed leaves, Tamara sees the garland of lights as a "sacrilege, a miserable lie."

Tremblay portrays the realities of war, the lies created to perpetuate the cycle of violence, the devastation wreaked on families and individuals and the dehumanizing of the enemy in a way that is profoundly moving. In the aftermath of the suicide bombing, the reader truly experiences the pain and guilt of Amed and the sense of loss from the death of his twin brother and the estrangement of his family.

The novel is divided into three parts, "Amed" which tells the story of his switch with Aziz, "Aziz" which tells the story of Amed's life as a twenty year old and his struggle to come to terms with what happened after Aziz accomplished his mission as a suicide bomber, and "Sony" which relates Mikael's play and how Amed comes to participate in it.

Mikael has written a play about war for his theatre students, among them a man named Aziz (this is Amed who was sent to live with Damilah in America when the truth of his identity became known). In the play a soldier has brutally murdered a young boy's parents. However, the soldier is unable to kill the boy named Sony, because he reminds him of his own young son. So he demands the boy explain why he should spare him. It is Mikael's intention that the child die to demonstrate the cruelty of war.  

Aziz has the part of Sony but he tells Mikael he cannot play this character. Aziz tells his story to Mikael, that his name is really Amed, how he switched places with his sick twin brother who was sent to bomb a military installation. After the bombing, Amed begins to live life as Aziz but he discovers he cannot live this lie and he becomes so sick his parents take him to the hospital. Eventually the truth is discovered when Amed reveals it to the family during a party celebrating Aziz's supposed miraculous cure from cancer. 

He tells Mikael that when Soulayed spoke, Amed looked into Soulayed's mouth and realized he saw nothing but lies. When Amed's true identity was discovered, he was sent to America where he learned the truth - that his brother was sent to a school where he blew up dozens of innocent children and maimed many others. Even though Mikael tries to comfort Amed by telling him that his brother did not understand what was going on, Amed feels this does not change the fact that his beloved twin brother murdered innocent children. Amed tries to explain to Mikael that war wipes away the boundaries between adults and children; children can be brave or they can be cowards, they can do heroic things or they can murder others, even other children. War affects everyone, adults and even children.

Mikael has prided himself on writing a play that he feels explains war. However, Amed/Aziz's narrative makes him realize that he does not understand war. He asks Aziz to use his story to convince the soldier in the play but Aziz cannot do this because it's not fair and not accurate. In the end Aziz returns to the stage, which Mikael describes as "the great gaping stage mouth with its potential for lies and truth." Aziz stands before the soldier and tells him he is seven-year-old Sony, and nine-year-old Aziz and twenty-year-old Amed. He doesn't need to tell the soldier a story to convince him not to kill Sony. The reason for not killing the boy must come from within the soldier.

"No, you don't need to have a reason or even to have right on your side to do what you think you must do. Don't look elsewhere for what is already within you."
 
The Orange Grove is a heart-rending, beautifully crafted book about war, terrorism, hatred, ideology and how all of these come together to create a cycle of destruction and death that can only be overcome by truth and love. 

Book Details:

The Orange Grove by Larry Tremblay
Windsor: Biblioasis 2015
pp. 157

Life After by Sarah Darer Littman

Daniela Bensimon lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina with her mother, father and younger sister Sarita. Her father owned a clothing store and was able to support his family. Life use to be good but that was before the Argentinean Crisis of 2001. Government corruption and high debt contributed to a recession in Argentina. As a result, people lost faith in the banks and wanted to withdraw their money, changing their pesos into the safer dollar currency. The government attempted to halt this by restricting the amount of money people could withdraw from their accounts. The result was demonstrations and protests. The government of Fernando de La Rua collapsed and eventually Argentina ended up with a new president, Eduardo Duhalde. He decided to allow the peso to float against the dollar which resulted in drastic devaluation of the peso and a huge increase in inflation. Many people could no longer afford to pay for goods. Among them, was Dani's father who decided to close his clothing store. As a result, Dani's family was forced to subsist on the salary her mother earned as a nurse.

Besides the economic woes, her family has suffered terribly from a terrorist attack on the AMIA building on Monday July 18,1994. This attack, which happened on the same day as Dani's 7th birthday, killed her Tia Sara who was 8 months pregnant, as well as 84 other people. For Dani's father, the death of his sister has been a trauma he has never quite recovered from. This tragedy followed by the loss of his store has sent him into a deep depression that sees him often having violent outbursts.

For a while Dani tries to hold on to the life she once had and to cope with her family's poverty and her father's depression. She still meets her novio, Roberto (Beto) after school and they walk and kiss in the park. Beto and Dani discuss the possibility of their families leaving Argentina. Many of Dani's friends and relatives have already left including her best friend, Gabriela Tanenbaum (Gaby)who has emigrated to Israel along with many other Argentinean Jews. Eventually, Roberto also leaves, settling in Miami with his family.
Dani's mother continues to insist that they leave too but finally when another tragedy almost strikes, Dani's family decides to accept the offer of her Tio Jacobo to settle in New York.

Life in New York is very very different from life in Argentina. This new life is what Dani calls her Life After. Her family settles Twin Lakes, New York with the help of the local Jewish Family Services organization. While her sister Sarita goes to the local elementary school, Dani begins classes at the enormous Twin Lakes High School. High School is fraught with many challenges, including taking classes in English and trying to make friends in a culture so very different from what Dani is accostomed to.

On her first day she meets Brian Harrison who helps her navigate the school and tells her he is "personal GPS". Dani soon discovers that Brian is one of the good things. Their blossoming friendship holds the promise of something more if Dani can figure out where she stands with Roberto whom she hasn't seen in more than a year.

Another good thing about Twin Lakes is Jon a young student in Dani's class. Dani can relate well to Jon because like her, he is also an outsider, someone who is different from everyone else. But Dani also has to contend with Jessica, who at first is mean and who humiliates Dani on her first day at high school. It's not long though before Dani discovers that Jessica's unfriendliness is hiding a big hurt. It is this hurt that helps both Dani and Jessica connect.

I enjoyed reading this book very very much. First of all, I learned about the Argentinean crisis which most people probably have forgotten or maybe never even knew about because of the tragedy of 9/11. Littman does give us some background to the crisis at the very beginning of the book which is helpful. She also includes the AMIA (Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina)bombing of 1994, which I'm betting is unfamiliar to most North Americans. The terrorist theme is a strong one in Life After. The hurt of terrorism knows no boundaries and hurts us all whether in America or Argentina.I especially liked the way she portrayed young people as rising above the effects of terrorism to become stronger people.

Secondly, most of the characters who were central to the storyline, were well developed, realistic and interesting. Dani's struggles and worries about life in Argentina and in the United States were realistically portrayed. This was true not only about the situations Dani had to cope with at school but also her concerns over Roberto, whom she remained faithful to. Brian was an especially likeable character who was kind and respectable towards Dani.

I feel that Sarah Darer Littman did a good job of telling the story of a young immigrant, her struggles, her hopes and dreams and her successes in a positive and uplifting manner. My only complaint about this book is that it took very long to move from Life Before (Dani's life in Argentina) to Life, After. I'm sure part of this was due to the author setting up the circumstances for Dani's family leaving Argentina and also providing the reader a contrast to the two cultures and societies.

Overall a very good read!

Book Details:
Life, After by Sarah Darer Littman
New York: Scholastic Inc. 2011
281 pp.