With Their Eyes: September 11th: The View from a High School at Ground Zero

By: Thoms, Annie

Book Overview

A deeply moving play remembering September 11, 2001, written by high school students who witnessed the tragedy unfold.

A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age
"Profound." --Booklist
"Moving." --Publishers Weekly
"Rings with authenticity and resonates with power." --School Library Journal

Tuesday, September 11, started off like any other...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060517182
• ISBN13: 9780060517182
• Release Date: August 2011
• Publisher: Harperteen
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 7.1"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 and higher

Customer Reviews

Captivating, Riveting, and Altogether Truthful.

This was the first book in a long time to bring me to tears. The ruthless honesty of teenagers at ground zero adds new perspective to the facts that we've all heard surrounding 9/11. I had to read it in segments- try to soak up character descriptions and don't skip the introduction. To anyone interested in seeking out a slice of humanity, I recommend this play.

A Subjective View from a Stuy Alumni

Never have I been prouder to be a graduate of Stuyvesant High School. On the morning of September 11th, when hijackers were flying the first plane into the WTC, I was shopping in the Cortlandt street Borders. I immediately left the store and sought comfort in my school, making it to the bridge just in time to see the second plane hook around and plow into the tower. I witnessed September 11th with the writers of the book; I was fortunate enough to work with Annie Thoms on my senior production of SING, months after the tragedy. While the stories are much more touching when heard in the people's own words...or at least performed on stage, as they were last year, the book touches you just the same. You don't have to know the ones telling their stories to feel what they did. The children are universal; their pain was all of New York's pain, was all of America's pain. And they have all prevailed since then, which gives the book such a happy ending. I am not a sappy person. I did not cry the day of the attacks. But I cried when I read this book. Even if only because it provides a sense of closure.

Absolutely a great book!

This is absolutely the best book I have seen this year. This nonfiction book really, and I mean really, tells the stories of what it was like to not only go to school their but also to work there. Stuyvesant high school is ranked number one in the country for a reason! These children, especially the ones who haven't been there for long, really got involved and brought out the best in this play which makes such a great book! I was fortunate enough to see this play both days and I was fortunate enough to witness a wonderful performance from all ten actors, and witness the producing and promotion talents of both producers, and a most special direction by both directors! Buy This Book! What's This Called you ask? IT'S WITH THEIR EYES!!!!

Not Just Another Sad 9/11 story . . .

This book is amazing. Everyone living in New York on September 11th has their own 9/11 story. . .This book tells students and teachers from Stuy's stories about 9/11 and its aftermath. The book tells the untold stories of the students and teaches.. . .At first I though this book was just going to be 10 different accounts of planes hitting the WTC. . .but it is not that at all. Instead it is personal accouts of how 9/11 touched their lives. I recomend this book to everyone, especially people not from New York who want to comprehend how September 11th affected and changed lives

!!!

I was fortunate enough to see the original production of With Their Eyes, brought alive by the exquisite producing talents of Ms. L. Long Waldor, and it has stuck with me quite firmly ever since. in a style similar to that of plays such as The Laramie Project, the September 11th terrorist attacks are narrated in this play by Stuyvesant high school students and staff who were witness to them, or to the immediate aftermath of the attacks. the people interviewed are of different nationalities, different social backgrounds, and all had different experiences on September 11th. these monologues are moving and observant and often very funny. this is a beautiful and fascinating piece to read, as well as a wonderful play to perform, particularly in a high school theater. buy this book!

incredible work

This is not a broad-brush, wasn't-it-awful retelling. It's a very thoughtful, direct, personal contemplation of a very scary day and the weeks that followed. The characters' speeches in the book are the real words of people at the high school -- students and adults who worked there -- who have lives and personalties beyond 9/11. I felt they were all talking to me. The choice of voices and incidents is wonderfully diverse. I keep pushing this book on friends, and we always find different things to discuss.This one will keep you both riveted and thinking for a long time.