Plot Summary - With Their Eyes is a play edited by Annie Thoms using real interviews of students and staff at Stuyvesant High School, four blocks away from Ground Zero. 9/11 is a day we may want to forget, but the memory won't ever fade. Todays students need to be aware of the happenings that took place on that dreaded day. The entire world was affected by the crashes. Stuyvesant High School tells their story
Personal Reaction - The topic is not desirable but the history needs to be told. The youth of today need to be aware of what America went through during those times. The book is well written.
Memorable Literary Element - This book is written in monologue form and comes first hand from the people who were at Ground Zero.
Illustrations - there are pictures for each individual that had a story to tell.
Review - From Booklist Gr. 9-12. In response to September 11, the students of New York City's Stuyvesant High School, which is located just blocks from Ground Zero, staged a powerful theatrical event. Inspired by Anna Deavere Smith's interview-based monologue performances, the students talked with peers, faculty, and others in their community about personal responses to the tragedy. Based on the transcripts of those conversations, the students created the monologues that are collected here with photographs of the performers, as well as excellent introductions by Smith and Thoms, who was the teacher who initiated the project. The speakers reveal their emotions with painful honesty, particularly when they speak about the mundane anxieties that mix with their overwhelming, global fears--how they continue the business of everyday life. The pieces retain each speaker's verbal ticks and rhythms--the "ums," the "you knows," and the half-sentences--and the startling immediacy of the words, set down the way people actually talk, gives these pieces even more impact. The book is an obvious choice for reader's theater and for use across the curriculum; its deeply affecting contents will also make compelling personal-interest reading. Gillian Engberg Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Promotion - Students could take part in the play themselves. Below is a link to the author and the students who put this book together.
Personal Reaction - The topic is not desirable but the history needs to be told. The youth of today need to be aware of what America went through during those times. The book is well written.
Memorable Literary Element - This book is written in monologue form and comes first hand from the people who were at Ground Zero.
Illustrations - there are pictures for each individual that had a story to tell.
Review - From Booklist Gr. 9-12. In response to September 11, the students of New York City's Stuyvesant High School, which is located just blocks from Ground Zero, staged a powerful theatrical event. Inspired by Anna Deavere Smith's interview-based monologue performances, the students talked with peers, faculty, and others in their community about personal responses to the tragedy. Based on the transcripts of those conversations, the students created the monologues that are collected here with photographs of the performers, as well as excellent introductions by Smith and Thoms, who was the teacher who initiated the project. The speakers reveal their emotions with painful honesty, particularly when they speak about the mundane anxieties that mix with their overwhelming, global fears--how they continue the business of everyday life. The pieces retain each speaker's verbal ticks and rhythms--the "ums," the "you knows," and the half-sentences--and the startling immediacy of the words, set down the way people actually talk, gives these pieces even more impact. The book is an obvious choice for reader's theater and for use across the curriculum; its deeply affecting contents will also make compelling personal-interest reading. Gillian Engberg Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Promotion - Students could take part in the play themselves. Below is a link to the author and the students who put this book together.