Patriot Day Reading List

Fiction and non-fiction books about 9/11 recommended by our Librarians.

Updated September 5, 2025
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The only plane in the sky : an oral history of 9/11
Graff, Garrett M.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "This is history at its most immediate and moving...A marvelous and memorable book." --Jon Meacham ​"Remarkable...A priceless civic gift...On page after page, a reader will encounter words that startle,...
The only plane in the sky
Graff, Garrett M.,
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "This is history at its most immediate and moving...A marvelous and memorable book." --Jon Meacham ​"Remarkable...A priceless civic gift...On page after page, a reader will encounter words that startle,...
Extremely loud & incredibly close
Foer, Jonathan Safran
Paper Book
ANew York Times Bestseller * NamedA Best Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post Book World, Chicago Tribune, St. Louis Post-Dispatch,andRocky Mountain News   Nine-year-old Oskar Schell has embarked on an...
Extremely loud & incredibly close
Foer, Jonathan Safran
Paper Book
ANew York Times Bestseller * NamedA Best Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post Book World, Chicago Tribune, St. Louis Post-Dispatch,andRocky Mountain News   Nine-year-old Oskar Schell has embarked on an...
Towers falling /
Rhodes, Jewell Parker
Paper Book
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...
Falling man : a novel
DeLillo, Don.
Paper Book
Book-of-the-Month Club Selection. "You'll scarcely be able to draw a breath throughout its lucid, overpowering climactic pages." - Kirkus Reviews, starred. "Brilliant... This novel is a return to DeLillo's best work." - Publishers Weekly, starred. 'There have been a...
Ground Zero /
Gratz, Alan,
Paper Book
The instant #1 New York Times bestseller. Acclaimed storyteller Alan Gratz (Refugee) delivers a pulse-pounding and unforgettable take on history and hope, revenge and fear -- and the stunning links between the past and present. September 11, 2001, New...
Ground zero :
Gratz, Alan,
Paper Book
The instant #1 New York Times bestseller. Acclaimed storyteller Alan Gratz (Refugee) delivers a pulse-pounding and unforgettable take on history and hope, revenge and fear -- and the stunning links between the past and present. September 11, 2001, New...
This very tree :
Rubin, Sean,
Paper Book
A deeply moving story about community and resilience, from the point-of-view of the Callery pear tree that survived the attacks on September 11, from Eisner Award-nominated author-illustrator Sean Rubin. * "A resonant, beautifully rendered testament to life and renewal." --...
102 minutes :
Dwyer, Jim,
Paper Book
"102 Minutes does for the September 11 catastrophe what Walter Lord did for the Titanic in his masterpiece, A Night to Remember . . . Searing, poignant, and utterly compelling."--Rick Atkinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of An Army at Dawn Hailed upon...
I survived the attacks of September 11, 2001
Tarshis, Lauren.
Paper Book
On the day that shocks the world, one boy just wants to find his family. A powerful addition to the gripping I Survived series. The only thing Lucas loves more than football is his Uncle Benny, his dad's best friend at the fire department where they both work. Benny taught Lucas everything...
The looming tower : Al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11
Wright, Lawrence
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * A "heart-stopping account of the events leading up to 9/11" (The New York Times Book Review), this definitive history explains in gripping detail the growth of Islamic fundamentalism, the rise of al-Qaeda, and the intelligence failures that...
Nine, ten :
Baskin, Nora Raleigh
Paper Book
From the critically acclaimed author of Anything But Typical comes a touching look at the days leading up to the tragic events of September 11, 2001, and how that day impacted the lives of four middle schoolers. Ask anyone: September 11, 2001, was serene and lovely, a...
Let's roll! : ordinary people, extraordinary courage
Beamer, Lisa.
Paper Book
2003 ECPA Gold Medallion Award winner! Lisa Beamer was thrust into the national spotlight after her husband, Todd, led a counterattack against terrorists on United Flight 93. He-and all the other passenger heroes-lost their lives in a Pennsylvania field. But that plane was the only one of the...
Ghost wars :
Coll, Steve
Paper Book
Comprehensively and for the first time, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll tells the secret history of the CIA's role in Afghanistan, from its covert programme against Soviet troops from 1979-89, to the rise of the Taliban and the emergence of bin Laden, to the secret efforts vy CIA...
America Is under Attack: September 11, 2001 - The Day the Towers Fell
Brown, Don
Paper Book
One of School Library Journal's Best Nonfiction Books of 2011 One of Horn Book's Best Nonfiction Books of 2011 On the ten year anniversary of the September 11 tragedy, a straightforward and sensitive book for a generation of readers too young to remember that...
14 cows for America
Paper Book
This New York Times bestseller, now available in Spanish, recounts the true story from Wilson Kimeli Naiyomah of the touching gift bestowed on the United States by a tribe of Maasai Warriors in the wake of the September 11 attacks. In June of 2002, a mere nine months since...
What were the Twin Towers? /
O'Connor, Jim
Paper Book
Discover the true story of the Twin Towers-how they came to be the tallest buildings in the world and why they were destroyed. When the Twin Towers were built in 1973, they were billed as an architectural wonder. At 1,368 feet, they clocked in as the tallest buildings in the...
What were the Twin Towers? /
O'Connor, Jim
Paper Book
Discover the true story of the Twin Towers--how they came to be the tallest buildings in the world and why they were destroyed. When the Twin Towers were built in 1973, they were billed as an architectural wonder. At 1,368 feet, they clocked in as the tallest buildings in the...
September 11 /
Romero, Libby,
Paper Book
The events of September 11, 2001, changed the world forever. With compelling photographs and sensitive, age-appropriate text, this Level 3 reader recounts the shocking attacks at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania, explains who was behind the attacks, and celebrates the...

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