Monica Edinger's Reviews > The Memory of Things

Having been in NYC on 9/11 I still find reading about it difficult and so I cannot claim any sort of objectiveness about books for children centered around it. I can never look at the Freedom Tower, go by the World Trade Center stop while on the subway (all lit up although the signs are gone), or be anywhere in that neighborhood without thinking of that time. The day itself and the many, many, many hard ones afterwards.

With time there are, of course books for children, several of them out this year. Of the ones I've read, this is the one I like best. Polisner communicates beautifully the eerie horror of the day so many of us here experienced. She effectively gives that surreal feeling I recall so vividly. The shock, sadness, and confusion. The fright. Trying to call, to get through, to find out if people were okay. (For those who have seen the Netflix series, "Stranger Things" for me there is something of Eleven in the unnamed girl Kyle finds on the bridge.) The story feels real from Kyle's efforts on behalf of the traumatized girl he encounters, to his desperation to be sure his parents are okay, and on through that single day. Really, really beautifully done.