“I still don’t understand. How can ‘history be alive’?”

Towers Falling

A powerful novel by award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes set fifteen years after the 9/11 attacks.

When her fifth-grade teacher hints that a series of lessons about home and community will culminate with one big answer about two tall towers once visible outside their classroom window, Dèja can’t help but feel confused. She sets off on a journey of discovery, with new friends Ben and Sabeen by her side. But just as she gets closer to answering big questions about who she is, what America means, and how communities can grow (and heal), she uncovers new questions, too. Like, why does Pop get so angry when she brings up anything about the towers? Award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes tells a powerful story about young people who weren’t alive to witness this defining moment in history, but begin to realize how much it colors their every day.

As the twentieth anniversary of September 11th nears, Towers Falling explores the thought-provoking question of how kids born after 2001 can find meaning in events they have no personal memory of, but which still have a monumental impact on their families, educators, and communities. In the tradition of her revered body of middle grade work including Ninth Ward, Sugar, and Bayou Magic, once again Jewell Parker Rhodes deftly weaves historical and socio-political layers into a story that is at its heart about friendship, family, and finding your way in a complicated world.

Videos

Introducing Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Honors

Recognition and Accolades awarded to Towers Falling

2019-2020
Maud Hart Lovelace Division II Honors Title

Minnesota Youth Readers Awards 

2019
Massachusetts Children’s Book Award Master List

Salem State University

2019
2019 Golden Sower Award Nominee

Nebraska Library Association

2019
2019 Louisiana Young Readers Choice List

State Library of Louisiana

2018
Teton County One Book, One Community

Teton County Library

2018
Rhode Island Children’s Book Award Nominee

Rhode Island Children’s Book Award

2017-2018
Maryland’s Black-Eyed Susan Award Nominee

Baltimore County Public Library

2017-2018
Keystone to Reading Elementary Book Award for Intermediate School Nominee 

Keystone State Reading Associaiton

2017-2018
Maine Student Book Award

Maine Library Association

2017-2018
Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List

Texas Library Association

2017
Books Matter Book of the Month: January 2017

Anti-Defamation League

2017
Capitol Choices List

Capitol Choices

2017
Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People Selection

Children’s Book Council

2017
Notable Books for a Gobal Society Winner

International Reading Association

2016
Best Young Adult Books of 2016

Seventeen Magazine

2016
Mirrors & Window Winner

Books Inc.

2016
2016 Nerdies: Middle Grade Fiction Winner

Nerdy Book Club

2016
Junior Library Guild Selection

Junior Library Guild

2016
Best Books of the Month July 2016: Ages 9-12

Amazon

2016
Summer Kids’ Indie Next List

IndieBound.org

2016
The Best Kid Lit on Bias, Diversity and Social Justice (Anti Defamation League)

Books Matter

Praise

Words of praise for Towers Falling from the press and authors
“Powerful, cleareyed… Rhodes doesn’t assume her readers know the magnitude of 9/11; she walks them tenderly through it.”

New York Times Book Review

“In Dèja, Rhodes has created a curious, resilient character whose journey can help other children process the horrible events that shape the world into which they are born.”
Time Magazine

“Towers Falling is a poignant and heartbreaking lens on our history and our future.”
Seventeen Magazine

“Rhodes approaches a complex, painful topic with insight and grace, providing context to an event distant to the book’s audience.”
Publishers Weekly

“Rhodes excels at shining a meaningful, if teacherly, light on tragedy—as she did for Hurricane Katrina in Ninth Ward (2010)—and instructors and librarians will appreciate her sensitive but candid approach to the September 11 attacks, as well as her diverse cast of characters.”
Linda Sue Park, NY Times Bestselling author

Press

Interviews and articles on Towers Falling

2017
Jewell Parker Rhodes Interview

Texas Bluebonnet Award

2017
Towers Falling NCTE Teachers’ Guide
NCTE

2017
Remembering 9/11 with Author Jewell Parker Rhodes

MackinVIA Community

2016
Leap Into Reading: Examining September 11 Through a Multifaceted Literate Ecosystem

School Library Connection

2016
Towers Falling Author Jewell Parker Rhodes on Writing for Children, Diversity in Lit, and How Books Can Heal

Barnes & Noble

2016
Ep. #22 — Interview with Jewell Parker Rhodes

Overdrive Professional Book Nerds

2016
Teaching Sept. 11 To Students Who Were Born After The Attacks Happened

NPR

2016
‘Towers Falling’: An Author Explores Challenges In Teaching 9/11

Here & Now

2016
Jewell Parker Rhodes Talks With Roger

The Horn Book

2016
Towers Falling Jewell Parker Rhodes Interview

VOA American Cafe

2016
PW KidsCast: A Conversation with Jewell Parker Rhodes

Publisher’s Weekly

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