Award-winning children’s book author speaks to Poland grade school about 9/11

By Bruce Walton

bwalton@vindy.com

POLAND

Many in the world might find it daunting that every student in grade school was born after the world-altering events of Sept. 11, 2001.

The world recognized the 15th anniversary of 9/11 attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C., and in Shanksville, Pa., last month, and students at McKinley Elementary and Poland Middle School welcomed an award-winning children’s book author to talk about her book and what they can learn from that day.

Nora Raleigh Baskin, author of the book “Nine, Ten, A 9/11 Story,” spoke to students Wednesday morning in the elementary school gymnasium about her process in writing the book and the understanding of its message.

“I hope the takeaway from this book is solidarity, unity and empathy,” she said. “So even in the face of this terrible tragedy, we can come together.”

Every student attending the assembly read her book, finishing just around Sept. 11, said Haley Shaffer, the middle school’s English teacher.

Shaffer and the staff used the school year’s lesson plan this year to teach kids about 9/11 through stories and narratives to learn about the post-9/11 society they live in today.

“I think, as teachers, we make assumptions that it [9/11] has been talked about in years leading up to it,” she said. “But I think a lot of times, the opposite thing happens because I think we forget that they weren’t alive when it happened.”

Shaffer said the sessions spurred the students’ curiosities to learn more on their own.

Madelyn Ray, a sixth-grader at Poland Middle, said she loved reading and loved the book. It also motivated her to look into the 9/11 attacks.

“After finding out about the book, I started watching a lot of videos on YouTube on what happened that day, and it was really interesting to see it happen,” Madelyn said.

Shaffer first read the book herself earlier this year and contacted Baskin to request a visit.

The book focuses less on the event and more on the days leading up to and after the tragedy. The book follows four children who each represent four themes in her story – chance, xenophobia (fear of people from other countries), sacrifice and heroism.

Baskin was inspired to write the book after watching a movie about the assassination of Robert Kennedy, an event she experienced as a 7-year-old. The author said events such as the 1960s assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. shaped the world she lived in afterward.

Baskin added parents often shield their children from the hard truths of Sept. 11, but she trusted those truths were things children were smart enough to understand and process to build a better future.

“You can reach a couple of kids or even all of them,” she said, adding that can be done by giving them a peek into a “more hopeful, peaceful and kinder future.”