THE DAY OUR WORLD CHANGED: Children's Art of 9/11

"I saw the planes hit the WTC... I saw people jumping out of buildings... My teachers and my family comforted us so good it really made me feel better," writes 10-year-old Nicole Ward in a caption beneath her chaotic red and black and orange watercolor of the planes crashing into the Twin Towers. "I feel sad because dogs have sacrificed themselves for other people. And their tails got squashed and their ears got cut off," reads another caption above eight-year-old Ryan Anders's drawing of a bandaged dog on a stretcher. Eighty-three artworks like these by New York City–area children were selected for this handsome, full-color album edited by Goodman, a professor of psychiatry at the New York University Child Study Center, and Fahnestock, curator of paintings and sculpture at the Museum of the City of New York (the proceeds from the book will go to their respective organizations for research and educational programs related to September 11). Some of the young artists—who range from five-year-olds to teenagers—are stunningly precocious, but the more rudimentary efforts are just as touching. There is a painting of Osama bin Laden eating the towers, murals of postdisaster streetscapes, a drawing of dinosaurs helping to rebuild the towers and much more. Throughout the book are essays by teachers, clerics and various prominent figures—including Bronx-based artist Tim Rollins, writer Pete Hamill and Sen. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey—about the effects of September 11 on their own families or the city at large. (Sept.)

FYI:The book's publication coincides with the opening of an exhibit of the artwork at the Museum of the City of New York. It should stand out among the flurry of September 11 books, with a Today show segment, a feature in Time and reviews in USA Today, the New York Times and elsewhere.