All We Have Left

by Wendy Mills

Overview

Interweaving stories from past and present, All We Have Left brings one of the most important days in our recent history—September 11th—to life, showing that love and hope will always triumph.

Now:
Sixteen-year-old Jesse is used to living with the echoes of the past. Her older brother died in the September 11th attacks, and her dad since has filled their home with anger and grief. When Jesse gets caught up with the wrong crowd, one momentary hate-fueled decision turns her life upside down. The only way to make amends is to face the past, starting Jesse on a journey that will reveal the truth about how her brother died.

Then:
In 2001, sixteen-year-old Alia is proud to be Muslim . . . it's being a teenager that she finds difficult. After being grounded for a stupid mistake, Alia decides to confront her father at his Manhattan office, putting her in danger she never could have imagined. When the planes collide into the Twin Towers, Alia is trapped inside one of the buildings. In the final hours, she meets a boy who will change everything for her as the flames rage around them . . .

A Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2016 selection

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681194325
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	08/15/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	231,186
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Wendy Mills is the author of Positively Beautiful and All We Have Left. She was born on the edge of the water and has never left it. She now lives with her family on a tropical island off the southwest coast of Florida, where she spends her time writing and dodging hurricanes.
www.wendymillsbooks.com
@WendyMillsBooks

Editorial Reviews

"[A] beautifully written coming-of-age story. . . . This outstanding, touching look at a national tragedy promotes healing and understanding and belongs in every library." - starred review, School Library Journal

"Both a poignant contemplation on 9/11 and a necessary intervention in this current political climate." - starred review, Kirkus Reviews

"Harrowing and realistic, highlighting bravery and courage against impossible odds. Mills movingly examines how easily pain can metastasize into hate, while demonstrating the power of compassion, hope, and forgiveness with equal force." - Publishers Weekly

"Thoughtful, poignant . . . An important topic that deserves more dialogue than it receives. A moving portrait and important look at the lasting effects of one of our country’s greatest tragedies." - Booklist

"A timely plea for reconciliation suited to teens whose entire lives have unfolded in the lingering aftermath of 9/11." - BCCB

"Poignantly heartbreaking. . . . While likely to evoke more than a few tears, the story is also hopeful, suggesting that even in the wake of unimaginable tragedy, love can outweigh hate, friendship can counter fear, and compassion and understanding can begin the healing process." - VOYA

"Mills’s narrative mission—to portray the experiences of characters from very different backgrounds while bringing the horrific tragedy and its aftermath to life for contemporary teens—is fully accomplished. . . . [A] timely, ultimately hopeful story of love, courage, and human goodness when it matters most." - The Horn Book Magazine

"Teens will appreciate this carefully researched and authentic exposé of a difficult subject. . . . A heartfelt, three-hankie exploration of a topic all too many teens must confront." - Kirkus Reviews on POSITIVELY BEAUTIFUL

"Highly appealing to teens who would be interested in a more modern take on a well-trod genre." - SLJ on POSITIVELY BEAUTIFUL

"The emotional core of the novel is convincingly powerful . . . teens will likely appreciate the well-researched depiction of losing a loved one to cancer." - Booklist on POSITIVELY BEAUTIFUL

From the Publisher

05/30/2016
The devastating events of 9/11 intertwine with the stories of Alia Susanto, a 16-year-old Muslim girl in Brooklyn, and Jesse McLaurin, a white 17-year-old who readers meet as she is spray-painting “terrorists go home” on the Islam Peace Center that is opening in her New York State town. In 2001, Alia explores her faith while dreaming of becoming a comic book author, culminating with a visit to the World Trade Center. In 2016, Jesse’s older brother, Travis, has been dead for 15 years; her family never learned why he was in one of the Twin Towers when they fell, and she feels helpless in the face of her parents’ enduring grief and anger. After the fallout from her act of vandalism, Jesse digs into what really happened to Travis, reaching some surprising and heartbreaking conclusions. Scenes of Alia and Travis attempting to escape the collapsing buildings are harrowing and realistic, highlighting bravery and courage against impossible odds. Mills (Positively Beautiful) movingly examines how easily pain can metastasize into hate, while demonstrating the power of compassion, hope, and forgiveness with equal force. Ages 13–up. Agent: Sarah Davies, Greenhouse Literary. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 06/01/2016
Gr 7 Up—This beautifully written coming-of-age story traces the lives of two girls whose worlds intersect on September 11, 2001. Chapters alternate between the present-day story of Jesse, whose brother died on that fateful day, and an emotional account of Muslim teen Alia's experience inside one of the beleaguered Twin Towers. The wounds are so deep that Jesse's family doesn't talk about her brother Travis. Her parents are on the brink of a divorce, and she has feelings for a bad boy who leads her astray. After her arrest for hate speech tagging, she is sentenced to community service at the Islam Peace Center. Alia is a teenage girl and aspiring comic book writer/illustrator. An incident at school causes her parents to withdraw permission for Alia to attend a program for talented high school artists. On September 11, she heads to her father's office at the World Trade Center to plead with him to change his mind. Jesse's journey to discover why Travis was at the Twin Towers and what happened to him before he died eventually leads her to a search for Alia, the girl Travis was with when the planes hit. Her work at the Islam Peace Center and the friends she makes there instill in Jesse a new understanding of Muslims and the Islamic faith. VERDICT This outstanding, touching look at a national tragedy promotes healing and understanding and belongs in every library.—Cindy Wall, Southington Library & Museum, CT

School Library Journal

★ 2016-05-04
This election cycle, with its exacerbated Islamophobia, makes author Mills' (Positively Beautiful, 2015) fictive meditation on 9/11 and the 15 years after especially timely.The book opens with Travis McLaurin, a 19-year-old white man trying to protect Alia Susanto, a 16-year-old hijab-wearing Indonesian-American Muslim, from the debris caused by the South Tower's destruction. The next chapter takes place 15 years later, with Travis' younger sister, Jesse, defacing a building with an Islamophobic slogan before the police catch her. The building, readers learn later, is the Islam Peace Center, where Jesse must do her community service for her crime. Between these plot points, the author elegantly transitions between the gripping descriptions of Alia and Travis trying to survive and Jesse almost falling into the abyss of generational hatred of Islam. In doing so, she artfully educates readers on both the aspects of Islam used as hateful stereotypes and the ruinous effects of Islamophobia. With almost poetic language, the author compassionately renders both the realistic lives, loves, passions, and struggles of Alia ("There's a galaxy between us, hung thick with stars of hurt and disappointment) and Jesse ("I'm caught in a tornado filled with the jagged pieces of my life") as both deal with the fallout of that tragic day.Both a poignant contemplation on 9/11 and a necessary intervention in this current political climate. (timeline, author's note) (Fiction. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews