9/11 books

I wanted to share a few books I came across recently. It suddenly hit me last week that I had no age appropriate books on 9/11 for my kiddos. I am also ALWAYS looking for books to add to our home library. Here are the books I personally purchased and I'll include a list at the bottom of the post of a few others for a bit of variety!

Fireboat is a book about a fireboat name the John J. Harvey that was retired in the 1990s. A group of friends purchased her and fixed her up to her former glory. On 9/11 John J. Harvey came out of retirement to help the firefighters battle the blaze at Ground Zero. It has great illustrations and is easy to read!


Unfortunately I ordered this one too late and it won't be here on time, but if I could judge a book by it's cover this one looks beautiful! I read many reviews and it came highly recommended! I still purchased it and am looking forward to it arriving later this month. 

America is Under Attack is probably my favorite account of 9/11 that is written very factually yet kid friendly. Its journalist writing is engaging but easy to understand. 10/10 would recommend this for elementary aged kids and up.

If you are looking for a book for yourself, The Day the World Came to Town is incredibly heart warming and a reminder that in the midst of darkness there is still so much good! Hundreds of planes were forced to land in a tiny town in Newfoundland because the US closed its borders to incoming plans on 9/11. This little town rallied to help the stranded, weary travelers. The book is written from so many points of view and is honestly just fascinating with all the logistics they had to figure out! 

Here are the runners-up that we may add to our collection at some point: 
What were the Twin Towers? (What Was? Who Was? series)
I Survived the Attacks of September 11th, 2001 My oldest has read this and enjoyed it. There are many books in the I Survived series that are worth reading! Check out your local library! 

I hope that helps! The teacher in me loves using children's books to help teach things that feel overwhelming. Don't forget to check your local library! So many make it easy to place holds online and ours even has curbside pickup! 

-Caroline 
*contains affiliate links. Affiliate links are a win win. They provide a direct link to the products I love, and they help support the blog! Read my disclosures here


PSA from Teacher Caroline | Laminator

I can.not. believe that I have lived 30 years AND taught 5 years of school without a personal laminator. Now that I'm NOT teaching, isn't it ironic that I finally bought one for myself? 😂


I had been eyeing the Scotch brand laminators because those are what I saw in the stores, but when I went to order, Amazon's price for the Scotch brand was slightly ridiculous. I noticed that they had THEIR OWN BRAND for less than $20! $20 was about what I was willing to spend. Also what sets this laminator above others I've used is NO CARRIER SHEET! The others I've personally used had a protective sheet over the laminating sheet pouch (which basically creates an extra step). This laminator doesn't require that protective sheet. I had great success just using the Amazon brand laminating pouches.

I actually paid $19 for it-- and RIGHT NOW it's on sale for $17.88 which is so awesome since school is about to start! Also can we have a moment for public schools starting July 31? #Icanteven I'm not even teaching and I can think of 100 reasons why I needed this. I plan to label some bins in our linen closet and I want the labels to be protected. Also with homeschooling I'm sure a bunch of things will come up that I will be glad to have this.

Also pictured are these ADORABLE snack sized baggies. WHERE WERE THESE when I was making centers for my classroom?? My first laminating project was these alphabet cards that were sent home with Emmie at the end of last year and these bags fit them perfectly! You can easily add them to your grocery pickup order (use my link for $10 off!)

Not sure how long that price will stay on Amazon for the laminator but here are quick links to grab what I mentioned! (It's only .89 cents away from the lowest price ever offered on Amazon and it's the lowest price it's been in 2 years!!).

Laminator----> HERE
Laminator sheets----> HERE
SQUARE snack bags----> HERE

* Please note that this post contains affiliate links. Affiliate links are a win win. They provide a direct link to the  products I love, and they help support the blog! Read my disclosures here