Ground Zero

• Genre: Fiction; middle grade contemporary realistic
• Originally Published: 2021
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 690L; grades 5-8
• Structure/Length: 38 chapters; approx. 336 pages; approx. 7 hours, 25 minutes on audio
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: Ground Zero tells the story of September 11 through the eyes of two children, separated by 18 years and an entire world. In 2001, Brandon visits his father on the 107th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center when an airplane hits the tower. Can he survive the chaos? In 2019, Reshmina has known nothing but war in Afghanistan. When she stumbles on a wounded American soldier, she must decide whether to keep her family safe or help the soldier and put her family in grave danger.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: 9/11; death; war, violence; suicide; terrorism; weapons             

Alan Gratz, Author

• Bio: Born 1972; holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Tennessee; currently lives in the mountains of North Carolina; member of the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame; awarded the National Jewish Book Award, the Young Hoosier Book Award, and the Malka Penn Award for Human Rights Honor (2017) for his novel Refugee.
• Other Works: Prisoner B-3087 (2013); Projekt 1065 (2016); Refugee (2017); Allies (2019); Two Degrees (2022)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit: