9781422288399

Chapter One

Real-Life Stories

F or Zoe Davis-Chanin, the morning of September 11, 2001, seemed just like any other morn- ing. Her family lived in a small apartment near the financial district in Manhattan. She was woken up by her father, ate some breakfast, and got ready for school. She left the apart- ment, like she did every morning, and walked with her younger sister, Mara, to school. “I knew something was wrong because, on my way up to my 4th grade classroom, some friends of mine and I heard the principal scream in her office. We didn’t think anything of it until we reached our classroom. There, we saw a burning hole in the side of one of the World Trade Center buildings. We all crowded around the windows to watch. It is a vision that I will never forget.” Zoe was witness- ing the beginning of the worst terrorist attack the United States has ever experienced. THE TERRORIST ATTACKS ON 9/11 On the morning of September 11, 2001, four planes were taken over by a group of Muslim terrorists from the countries of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates. These terror- ists had only one goal. They wanted to f ly the planes into some very important American build- ings. They wanted to use these planes as weapons to kill as many people as possible. Two of the planes were f lown into the two tallest towers of the World Trade Center. Called the

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