With Their Eyes: September 11th, the View From a High School at Ground Zero edited by Annie Thoms

Thoms, A. (2002). With their eyes: September 11^th, the view from a high school at Ground Zero. New York: HarperTempest.

ISBN-13: 978-1-40464-285-0

Summary

Tuesday morning, September 11, 2011 began like any other day at Stuyvesant High School, a magnet school for high-achieving students four blocks from the World Trade Center in New York City. Five days into the new school year, hundreds of students watched in horror through their classroom windows as the Twin Towers burst into flames during first period. Following evacuation and relocation, English teacher Annie Thoms contacted playwright Anna Deavere Smith with an ambitious idea: create a play in which Stuyvesant students told their own stories and the stories of others in the community about their experiences that day and in the days that followed. Ten students auditioned and became the play’s actors. They interviewed fellow classmates, faculty, and staff and recorded it all on tape. Then, they transcribed the interviews, which create the monologues that make up the play. The play was performed on February 8 and 9, 2002 to standing ovations and national attention.

Critical Evaluation

With Their Eyes is a fusion of recording history and creating art. The monologues are the stories of real people and their voices. The unfinished sentences left with words like “um” and “uh” and the breaks in thought echo the jarred and jagged memories of that day for them: “It’s just that, it’s interesting, it was like,/ the, the air felt on the outside like something that you/ might smell at a,/ or feel at a barbecue,/ but it didn’t, it…it hurt you./ It hurt your windpipe” (44). Perhaps they show us that there truly are no words that can express their feelings. Each monologue paints with words the images they saw first hand and terrifyingly close. The play has two acts that follow a chronology of events. Act One is about the morning of September 11 and evacuating the school. Act Two is about the days following September 11. Frank discussions about reasons for the attacks take place, and the monologues are peppered with occasional explicit language. Again, the language is part of the reality of the people speaking. Readers will recognize how the actors placed themselves in another person’s words, just as we are encouraged to put ourselves in others’ shoes. The emotion and empathy is strong, and this play, through its linguistic art, records history. Through these words, real people told their stories and by doing so, art was created. Art endures through time. This play symbolizes that New York City, and the rest of America, will also endure.

 

Reader’s Annotation

 

Ten high school students at Stuyvesant High School, four blocks from the World Trade Center, create a play of monologues about what it was like that day and after. These words from eye-witnesses will stir emotions and ultimately remain a lasting piece of historical art.

 

Author Information

 

Annie Thoms herself graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1993. She received her BA from Williams College and then her MA in English education from Teachers College at Columbia University. In 2000, she became an English teacher and theater advisor at Stuyvesant High School.

 

Annie Thoms currently lives in New York City with her husband and two daughters, Eleanor and Isabel. She says, “Too often, adults looking for authors that teenagers will want to read ignore one of the greatest talent pools possible: other teenagers. High school students have incredible voices and vivid, powerful stories to tell, not only in the face of national tragedy, but in the everyday sorrows and joys of their lives as well.”

 

Information about Annie Thoms was found on the Harper Collins Publishers website. http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/24990/Annie_Thoms/index.aspx

 

Genre

Young adult

Nonfiction

Drama

Curriculum Ties

9/11

Book Talking Ideas

How is history recorded? What is the significance of art?

Reading Level/ Interest Age

Appropriate for ages 14 and up

Challenge Issues

Language

Challenge Defense

If it were challenged, I would consult ALA's Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library  Materials.

I would also cite these reviews:

Book Links (A.L.A.) 04/01/03

School Library Journal 01/01/03

Booklist 09/01/02

Voice of Youth Advocates (V.O.Y.A.) 10/01/02

Books for the Teen Age (NYPL) 05/01/04

Wilson's Junior High School 11/01/05

Publishers Weekly 09/02/02

Wilson's Senior High School 10/30/03

Why did I include this title?

I was intrigued when I read that an English teacher, like myself, thought of this idea and was able to pull it off. You can see the people and feel the words of the monologues. I think that talking about the pain helps heal the pain; this play is an example of that.