Brandon Chavez is in trouble. That’s why, instead of spending this beautiful September day at school with his friends, he has to spend it with his father at his job for Windows on the World, the restaurant on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center’s North Tower. 

Brandon has a plan to make things right, but it means a quick errand all the way back down, to the mall in the basement. While his father is distracted, Brandon sneaks onto an elevator and heads down. Only a few floors later, there’s a thundering crash, and the elevator car starts plummeting! The emergency brakes catch the car, but this is only the beginning. Something has happened somewhere above him. Brandon is frantic to get back to his dad, but finds the stairways blocked, and fire and smoke filling the air. The only way out is down, dozens and dozens of floors, as thousands of people crowd the stairs, desperate to escape. As word trickles out that someone has flown a plane into the tower, Brandon must keep going if he wants to survive.  

Twenty years later, Reshmina is also worried about survival. Her twin brother is considering joining the Taliban, to fight the American soldiers who’ve been in their country, Afghanistan, for years. When Reshmina finds herself caught between the two sides, she knows one wrong step could mean death for her, and her whole village. (New Hampshire Great Stone Face Book Award nominee, 2022)