Bull, Chris & Erman, Sam, eds. At Ground Zero; the young reporters who were there tell their stories - Book Review

Kliatt, Sept, 2002 by Janice Bees

Avalon, Thunder's Mouth Press, dist. by Publisher's Group West. 404p. c20022. 1-5605-427-0. $15.95. JSA

This collection of essays, released to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11, includes harrowing-accounts from young reporters regarding their experiences that fateful day. Some of the reporters were near the World Trade Center at the time of the tragedy, while others saw the news unfold on television, and made the bold decision to race to the site of what would become Ground Zero. Each of the 25 contributors to this collection has a unique perspective on the day's events.

Photographer David Handschuh tells a chilling account of how he took photographs of the burning towers, only to be caught in the chaos as one of the towers collapsed. Sixteen-year-old Stacy Forster, of the Wall Street Journal Online, was reporting on Internet investing when she was suddenly recruited to report about the attacks. Alexander Epstein, a student journalist at Stuyvesant High School, watched the horror unfold from the window of his classroom. Cindy Schreiber, from the Columbia School of Journalism, raced to the scene, her tape recorder in hand. It is fascinating to read how many of the journalists were able to set aside their own emotions and concerns about personal safety in order to get their stories.

As one may imagine, some of the descriptions of the scenes of that day are quite graphic, and get into more disturbing detail than may have been shown on television. While unnerving, these reports chronicle what actually happened on that fateful day. I believe that At Ground Zero may be useful, not only for its significance at this time, but as a collection of personal memoirs, which tell of a historical day in our nation's history. Janice Bees, Freelance Reviewer, Chicago, IL