As high school students in 2020, none of you remember the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Every year, during this week, I remember where I was the moment I learned about the terrorist attack in New York City. I remember arriving at school with my mom (who was a teacher there) and having another teacher ask if we'd seen the news this morning. We hadn't. I remember spending the next hour before school started sitting in the office watching the news then spending the rest of the day wishing my teacher would tell us something, anything about what was going on. I remember the weeks following, where every car on the street had a little American flag sticking up from the window as a way of saying "We're in this together." I remember having an assembly on the one year anniversary, in order to honor the first responders and medical workers who were so important on that day. Then, one day, it all became a memory. Something that happened, but no longer affects our day to day life.

But this isn't true for everyone. There are some people who were immediately affected by loss or injury and the attack remains a huge part of their life. Hope and Other Punchlines is a story about the babies of 2001. Hope and her friends and family were each affected by the attack in their own unique ways. This is their story.

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​The following is a book review which I wrote in September 2019:

On September 11, 2001 four airplanes were hijacked on their way to the United States of America. One landed in a field in Pennsylvania, one hit the Pentagon in Washington DC, and two crashed into the Twin Towers [World Trade Center] in New York City. Almost 3000 people lost their lives as a result of this attack on America.

Hope and Other Punchlines is a fictional story about those who didn't. 
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Based on a real city in New Jersey, Hope and Other Punchlines takes place in the city which suffered the most deaths in the terrorist attack, outside of New York itself. Abbi, who's middle name is Hope, was photographed in a crown and holding a balloon as her caregiver, holding Abbi, ran away from the falling towers behind them. It was Abbi's first birthday. The image went viral and "Baby Hope" became a symbol for the entire country of hope and joy in times of sorrow.

This is the reality that Abbi has grown up with. She is famous and people are constantly doting on her in public places, thanking her for being Baby Hope and telling her that her picture is handing in their house. Can you imagine how strange that must feel? Abbi is sick of it.

Then, the summer before senior year, Abbi starts to feel the symptoms of 9/11 Syndrome, a very real effect of having been near the towers when they fell. Abbi, convinced she is dying wants to get away and just be a normal girl for one summer before dealing with the illness. So, she gets a job as a camp counselor outside of town. It is here that Abbi meets Noah, a boy who has his own connection to the Baby Hope photo and refuses to let Abbi ignore her past. Noah takes her on a wild goose chase, leading to Abbi meeting all of the remaining people in her viral photo. For some it's joyful; for others its painful. Through it all Abbi remains their rock, as she's done her whole life. 

This book brought back all of the emotions I remember feeling on the day of the attack. It reminded me to think about all the people who didn't stop being affected by the attack a few weeks or months later. Living in California and having no family on the east coast, its easy to become disconnected from disasters that happen there. It is important to remain aware and connected to the other people in our country, and to support each other in times of need. This book is an excellent reminder for us.

Plus, I've always wondered how it would feel to go viral. Now I know!

The CDC lists suicide as the second leading cause of death for children and teenagers ages 10-24. Experts say that more teenagers and young adults die for suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease combined. There is an average of 3703 suicide attempts by high school students every day in the United States; 4 out of 5 of these teens have given clear warning signs.

In order to bring awareness to these facts and the serious impact of suicide rates in our country, September has been named National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month.

The following books in our library collection deal with suicide in a way that provides perspective and solidarity to those with mental and physical illnesses that may cause a suicide attempt:

• The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand
  • ​After her younger brother, Tyler, commits suicide, Lex struggles to work through her grief in the face of a family that has fallen apart, the sudden distance between her and her friends, and memories of Tyler that still feel all too real.
• Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glassgow
  • ​As she struggles to recover and survive, seventeen-year-old homeless Charlotte "Charlie" Davis cuts herself to dull the pain of abandonment and abuse.
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
  • ​Perks follows observant "wallflower" Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show . Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.
• The Astonishing Color of After by Emily XR Pan
  • ​After her mother's suicide, grief-stricken Leigh Sanders travels to Taiwan to stay with grandparents she never met, determined to find her mother who she believes turned into a bird.
• All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
  • Told in alternating voices, when Theodore Finch and Violet Markey meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, both teetering on the edge, it's the beginning of an unlikely relationship, a journey to discover the "natural wonders" of the state of Indiana, and two teens' desperate desire to heal and save one another.
• It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
  • New York City teenager Craig Gilner succumbs to academic and social pressures at an elite high school and enters a psychiatric hospital after attempting suicide.
• I Was Here by Gayle Forman
  • In an attempt to understand why her best friend committed suicide, eighteen-year-old Cody Reynolds retraces her dead friend's footsteps and makes some startling discoveries.
• The Program by Suzanne Young
  • When suicide becomes a worldwide epidemic, the only known cure is The Program, a treatment in which painful memories are erased, a fate worse than death to seventeen-year-old Sloane who knows that The Program will steal memories of her dead brother and boyfriend.
• The History of Jane Doe by Michael Belanger
  • After his girlfriend commits suicide, a teenage history buff looks back at their relationship and tries to understand what lead to the tragedy.
• We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
  • After leaving her life behind to go to college in New York, Marin must face the truth about the tragedy that happened in the final weeks of summer when her friend Mabel comes to visit.
• Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick
  • A day in the life of a suicidal teen boy saying good-bye to the four people who matter most to him.
• If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
  • Amanda Hardy only wants to fit in at her new school, but she is keeping a big secret, so when she falls for Grant, guarded Amanda finds herself yearning to share with him everything about herself, including her previous life as Andrew.
• Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang
  • One cold fall day, high school junior Liz Emerson steers her car into a tree. This haunting and heartbreaking story is told by a surprising and unexpected narrator and unfolds in nonlinear flashbacks even as Liz's friends, foes, and family gather at the hospital and Liz clings to life.
• And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard
  • Sent to an Amherst, Massachusetts, boarding school after her ex-boyfriend shoots himself, seventeen-year-old Emily expresses herself through poetry as she relives their relationship, copes with her guilt, and begins to heal.
• Skim by Mariko Tamaki
  • (Graphic Novel) Wiccan goth teen Kimberly Keiko Cameron sinks into a growing depression after her classmate's ex-boyfriend kills himself, sparking a school revolution that forces all the students to redefine themselves.

For more information on stress, anxiety, depression and suicide read the materials in  Cameron's Collection, found in the Gale Database > Gale ebooks.

If you or anyone you know is in need of emergency help call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 and visit their youth webpage for more resources.