Disney’s star-studded post-9/11 PSAs were intended to help kids process trauma. Twenty years later, they act as a mirror to a nation drunk on jingoism.
The months and years after 9/11 were troubling as an adolescent; color-coded terror threat levels, Freedom Fries, American Idiot, the ubiquitous American flags becoming a symbol of dogged support of carnage abroad as opposed to unity. My generational cohort who endured Disney Channel during the peak of its sentimental patriotism are in their early 30s and late 20s now, and we came of age in a political landscape defined by Osama bin Laden and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I never thought I’d write a book about the attacks for kids,” writer Kate Messner told me via email. “But time has a way of changing things and providing new perspectives.” Messner has written dozens of children’s books, from coming of age novels to a recent picture book about Dr. Anthony Fauci. She’s also the author of thebook series, which features a time-traveling search and rescue dog named Ranger. Ranger, with his modern-aged search and rescue team, has traveled everywhere from the Oregon Trail to the Underground Railroad and even New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
Messner told Jezebel that she decided to write the book after school visits where students would ask her to write abook about 9/11. She was hesitant at first, deeming the event too sad and too raw to explore. But in time, Messner realized that this silence didn’t dampen their curiosity.“Our elementary school readers of today don’t have any of the sad memories of 9/11 that we carry around as adults,” Messner said.
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