Ground Zero by Alan Gratz
I am Thijs. I enjoy reading (maybe a little too much) and being outdoors. I have a younger brother and my favorite dessert is root beer floats.
I loved how the author used two different characters to tell the story. It was interesting to have one character talk about his 9/11 experience and the other character tell about the war in Afghanistan to make this book work as one story. If you enjoy reading this book, I highly recommend reading some of Alan Gratz’s other books like Refuge and Projekt 1065. Most of Alan Gratz’s books have two or more main characters telling their story that eventually connects with the other main character in a surprising way.
In Ground Zero, the first character, Brandon Chavez, and his father were on their way to the World Trade Center (The Twin Towers) on September 11, 2001. Brandon recently had been suspended from school so he had to go to work with his dad. His dad was working at Windows of the World, which was a restaurant at the top of the North Tower. Brandon was in an elevator headed down to the mall at the bottom of the North Tower. When a plane smashed into the North Tower. Brandon was luckily able to get out of the elevator. He still had many challenges ahead of him. Read this book to find out what happens to Brandon and his father.
The other character in the story is Reshmina, and she lives in a small village in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border. For her whole life Afghanistan have been at war. The American and Taliban had been fighting for more than eleven years. One day an American soldier and the Afghanistan National Army (ANA) search Reshmina’s village because a rumor has spread that the Taliban has a secret weapon in the village. After the search nothing is found. Then the ANA and the American soldier start heading back to the base when the Taliban attacks them. All of the ANA soldiers die. Later after the attack Reshmina finds the America soldier laying on the ground. He can not see. Will Reshmina help the soldier or take revenge for her sister that was killed on her wedding day?
