For all of those who lived through the events of September 11, 2001, yet struggle to explain them to our children, this would be the perfect novel to help them understand that day in history. Nine, Ten by Nora Raleigh Baskin is a beautifully written novel told from the perspective of four middle schoolers of the 48 hours leading up to 9/11. The fact that there are four different perspectives means that there will be at least one character that a reader can relate to. There’s Naheed a Muslim born and raised in Ohio; Will a young boy dealing with the grief he feels from the death of his father in Shanksville, PA; Sergio an African American boy living in NYC with his grandmother who befriends a firefighter; Aimee who has had to move to LA and start a new school. Each character has their own personal problems to deal with along with the typical problems that come with starting middle school. The author does such a good job writing the characters so that they are your typical middle schoolers, with all of the fears, worries and angst that comes with the age group. They each come across as someone you could find if you walked into any middle school.
On top of the typical problems that all middle schoolers struggle with, each character has a rather big problem at the forefront of their worries. It’s these layers of plot lines they make this novel so masterfully written, from the quite personal problems each character faces, to the drama of middle school, to the bigger national problem that plays out on 9/11, each story line is told and woven together to create a novel that will stick with the reader. Baskin has written a novel that will not only help explain the events of that day, but also demonstrates how perspectives change, even for ones so young and innocent.
The other thing that Nine, Ten has going for it is that it brings up big problems that many middle schoolers face in this day and age, but tells them not only from a middle schoolers perspective without making them seem older on unrelatable, but also makes them personal. Naheed grapples with how to view her outward signs of her religion, like her hijab, and the reactions she gets from other people. Will deals with his grief and pain from losing his father to a senseless accident. Sergio is being raised by his grandmother and has to deal with his dead-beat dad who shows up at all the wrong times with empty excuses as well as being treated different because he’s black. Aimee is the new kid in a very different city and missing her mom who now travels a lot for her new job, which causes her to worry about the possibility of her parents divorcing.
Starting on 9/9/01, each of the four characters happens to be in the Chicago O’Hare airport for different reasons. They all go their separate ways, have their separate experiences in those two days leading up to 9/11. Then a year later, on the anniversary of those tragic events, they all end up at the same exact place, where events bring them together in a dramatic way. Again, the weaving of stories that takes place in Nine, Ten is masterfully done and makes this a novel a must read when it comes to the events surrounding 9/11/01.
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: 3 religious exclamations; 1 mild obscenity.
Violence/Gore: Character imagines someone threatening another person to “disembowel them with their teeth”; character remembers a secondhand account of a cop pushing someone down and man handling him because he was black; account of the events of September 11, 2001 given from 4 different perspectives (2 on television/radio and 2 from personal firsthand accounts) but nothing more than an account of the exact events and the statement that thousands died; a brick is thrown through a characters window at home; mention of a person being shot at because of a traditional head covering they were wearing.
Sex/Nudity: Boy and girl hold hands and kiss 1 time each.
Mature Subject Matter:
Death of family member, terrorism, racism, homelessness, death.
Alcohol / Drug Use:
None
