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Celebrating the Twin Towers
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Today is a tough day for many of us. I worked in lower Manhattan for years. On 9/11/2001, I was fortunate to have been at our advertising agency in midtown when the planes hit the World Trade Center. Many of my colleagues were in the office on the 47th floor of the World Financial Center and watched the whole tragedy unfold. Thankfully, everyone in our group survived (although our company lost a few employees who did work in a travel office in the WTC).
I’ve struggled whether to tell Benjamin about the events of 9/11. He’s not quite six (actually, 5 and 3/4 today) and I don’t think he’s ready to learn that the world can be an evil place. I have told him about the Twin Towers. One of our favorite books is called The Man Who Walked Between the Towers. It is the true story of Phillipe Petit, a young French aerialist and street performer who dared to walk a tightrope between the towers (which stood one thousand three hundred and forty feet high) on August 7, 1974. It’s a beautiful book and story, written and illustrated for children by Mordicai Gerstein (it was a 2004 Caldecott Winner).
At the end of the book, it says “Now the towers are gone. But in memory, as if imprinted on the sky, the towers are still there. And part of that memory is the joyful morning, August 7, 1974, when Phillipe Petit walked between them in the air.”
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September 11th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Stefanie,
Thanks for sharing that. I felt a little confused myself on what to tell Olivia, who is now 2 1/2, about this. She saw me watching the memorial on TV and had lots of questions; “Who is that?”, “Why is she crying?” “Why is the man ringing the bell?”…All very simple questions, but so incredibly difficult to answer. I think your book suggestion is a great way to help make kids aware about WTC.
September 14th, 2009 at 10:55 am
I know you and she will love this book. It’s a beautiful story and very uplifting.
September 11th, 2011 at 2:57 pm
Gray is at the age of “why?” (2.5 yr). Today was no exception. “Why are you crying, mommy?”, he blurted. I said, “because I feel sad. I miss a friend.” Gray watches the Freedom Towers being built every day since that is our apt.’s view and this book will piece together the inevitable question, “why are they building this? What was here before?” Your recommendations have always been spot on and this, too, will probably be no exception.