The Sunrise Story

Yesterday I got to spend a day with a writer, and not just any writer...Nora Raleigh Baskin. She is kind and generous. She is smart and funny. She made yesterday a day we will all remember for a long time. I picked her up at her hotel in the morning. We chatted for the entire ride to school. She's so easy to talk to and we have so much to share. At school, things get set up. The technology magically works and kids begin arriving. I could feel the excitement. So many people stopped and listened to her talk, but the sixth graders were so excited. (I'll get reactions today in class.)  She talked about how she got the idea for the book, what it was like writing about an event like 9/11, and how it was like writing four books in one. Throughout her talk, she engaged the students and asked them questions. She talked about how books are windows and mirrors to the reader. She talked about the hard work of writing and revising and research. During lunch, she asked the teachers ...

Where were you on September 11th? What's your story? This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of the day that changed our world forever and the students I spend my days with, weren't even alive.  While reading & booktalking  Somewhere Among , a novel in verse by Annie Donwerth-Chikamatsu that was set in 2001, my sixth graders began asking me questions about my 9/11 story. Where were you? What did you think? Were you scared? This conversation is not an easy one to have, but it's necessary. Reading stories always makes these difficult conversations easier to have. Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story  by Nora Raleigh Baskin  is a perfect book to help those conversations.  In Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story, we meet four kids from around the country 48 hours before the attacks. We get to know them. We learn who they are. Baskin masterfully brings the reader back to "before" with ease. Each of these kids is dealing with life, as they know it, before it all ...