Towers Falling

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By Jewell Parker Rhodes

Read by Jewell Parker Rhodes

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This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around July 12, 2016. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

From award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes comes a powerful novel set fifteen years after the 9/11 attacks in a classroom of students who cannot remember the event but live through the aftermath of its cultural shift.

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.

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  • Praise for Towers Falling:

    "History made personal--and what a person! Deja's voice is real and memorable, her compelling story one of hope unmarred by sentimentality."
    Linda Sue Park, Newbery Medalist and New York Times bestselling author
  • "This tender retelling of tragedy is a solid vessel to help young readers understand the gravity of 9/11 and how it touches all Americans, no matter where we come from. "
    Kirkus Reviews
  • "This is a welcome contribution to children's literature."
    School Library Journal
  • "Rhodes approaches a complex, painful topic with insight and grace, providing context to an event distant to the book's audience."
    Publishers Weekly

On Sale
Jul 12, 2016
Publisher
Hachette Audio
ISBN-13
9781478909699

Jewell Parker Rhodes

About the Author

Dr. Jewell Parker Rhodes is the New York Times bestselling author of several books for youth, including Ghost Boys; Black Brother, Black Brother; Paradise on Fire; and Treasure Island: Runaway Gold. She is the recipient of many distinguished awards and honors, including the Coretta Scott King Author Honor, the Green Earth Book Award, an NAACP Image Award nomination, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, and the Octavia E. Butler Award. Rhodes is the Founding Artistic Director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing and Virginia G. Piper Endowed Chair at Arizona State University. She invites you to connect with her at jewellparkerrhodes.com.
 
Kelly McWilliams is the mixed-race writer of the young adult books Agnes at the End of the World, Mirror Girls, and Your Plantation Prom Is Not Okay. She’s written for Time, Publishers Weekly, and Bustle among other outlets. Mirror Girls, about biracial twin sisters growing up under Jim Crow, was a Target Book Club Pick and Barnes & Noble monthly pick, and her debut novel was a finalist for the Golden Kite award. She lives in Seattle with her family. Find her at KellyMcWilliamsAuthor.com. 

Briana Mukodiri Uchendu is an illustrator, a visual development artist, and a first-generation Nigerian American. Her work is inspired by her interests in folklore, film, and animation and her passion to highlight voices that usually go unheard. Briana is a graduate of Ringling College of Art and Design, where she majored in illustration. She is the illustrator of The Talk, A Coretta Scott King author honor book. She currently lives in her hometown of Houston, Texas. You can connect with her at mukoart.com

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