''We All Fall Down'' is a novel by

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

author

Eric Walters Eric Robert Walters, (born March 3, 1957) is a Canadian author of young adult fiction and picture books. As of 2020, Eric Walters has written over 100 books. Background Walters was an elementary school teacher at Vista Heights Public School ...

, published in 2006 by

Random House of Canada Random House of Canada was the Canadian distributor for Random House, Inc. from 1944 until 2013. On July 1, 2013, it amalgamated with Penguin Canada to become Penguin Random House Canada. Company history Random House of Canada was established i ...

. The story follows Will, a ninth-grade student, spending a day with his father at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. It was awarded the

Red Maple Award The Red Maple Award is an award in the Ontario Library Association (OLA) Forest of Reading Awards. The Red Maple Award celebrates fiction (since 1998) and non-fiction Non-fiction (or nonfiction) is any document or content (media), media conte ...

in 2007 and was an honor book for the 2008 Manitoba Young Reader's Choice Award. A sequel, ''

United We Stand United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two fi ...

'', was released in 2009.

Synopsis

Ninth-grader Will Fuller shadows his father, the vice president of an international trading company based in the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are the hundreds of sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may also refer to: Buildings * World Trade Center (1973–2001), a building complex that was destroyed during the September 11 at ...

. He is not looking forward to the visit, as his father has always been very focused on his work and Will worries that his father will not bother to make time for him. Will's visit takes place on the morning of the

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, and is told in rapid first-person narration as Will, his father, and other staff in the tower offices attempt to escape during the building's collapse. Will's best friend James's father works as a New York

firefighter A firefighter (or fire fighter or fireman) is a first responder trained in specific emergency response such as firefighting, primarily to control and extinguish fires and respond to emergencies such as hazardous material incidents, medical in ...

, adding another element of danger to the narrative. ''We All Fall Down'' received predominantly very positive reviews, but received some criticism for lengthy exposition designed to explain the background of the terrorist attacks to readers.

References

External links

Eric Walters
(official) {{DEFAULTSORT:We All Fall Down 2006 Canadian novels Novels about the September 11 attacks Novels by Eric Walters Novels set in Manhattan Forest of Reading Award–winning works

Synopsis

See also

References

External links