If you'd like to talk about September 11 with your class or child, this book offers a way in that starts with compassion rather than the tragedy itself.
Carmen Agra Deedy tells this true story in collaboration with Wilson Kimeli Naiyomah, the Maasai man whose gift to the United States sits at its center. Naiyomah was studying in New York on September 11, 2001, and carried what he witnessed home to his village in western Kenya, so the story that follows comes from inside his own experience.
As a mom whose children's family is from different parts of East Africa, I hold on to books like this one for how they keep that part of the world present and connected to our life here in America.
When Naiyomah tells his village what happened, the response is immediate: his community offers what they have and value most, their cows, as a gift of comfort to a grieving nation half a world away. That gift comes to life in Thomas Gonzalez's praised colored pencil and pastel illustrations, which render the Kenyan savanna in warm golds and reds, keeping the story anchored entirely in the Maasai's own landscape and point of view.
His community offers what they have and value most, their cows, as a gift of comfort to a grieving nation half a world away.
For young readers, the book offers a way into September 11 that leads with the response it inspired. Instead of asking children to process the scale of the tragedy directly, it shows them what one community's compassion looked like in action, making empathy and cross-cultural care the story's focus.
The backmatter deepens that connection considerably. It includes Naiyomah's own account of how the book came together, along with news of the herd's growth over the years, dedicated as a living, ongoing gift rather than a single gesture. It closes by speaking directly to readers, expressing the Maasai's hope that this small story of fourteen cows might carry some measure of comfort and peace to those who hear it. It's a reminder that solidarity doesn't require shared geography, only shared humanity.