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CNN Live At Daybreak

Children's Book Written Before 9/11 Helps Children Deal With Anger

Aired December 18, 2001 - 06:46   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Long before the 9/11 attacks ever happened, an artist and an author teamed up to create a book on the biblical story of Cain and Abel. But as CNN's Keith Oppenheim reports, this book is now a bridge between a story that spans time and a day when time stood still.

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SANDY SASSO, AUTHOR: Cain noticed that when he was alongside his brother, Abel reached only to his chin.

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KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sandy Sasso is a rabbi and author, Joani Rothenberg an illustrator, and together they wrote a children's book based on the biblical story of Cain and Abel.

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SASSO: "I hate you, Abel," he called out.

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OPPENHEIM: The original idea was to use the story as a way to help kids talk about anger and how it can escalate.

(on camera): It's important to know that this book was written and illustrated prior to September 11. But there is a drawing in the story that makes an almost uncanny connection to that day. It's the part of the story that tells how with the passing of time angry words turn to war and greater violence.

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JOANI ROTHENBERG, ILLUSTRATOR: If I was given the book today, I don't think I could have done that drawing. I know that I could not have done that same image as I did in April. It would have been too painful.

SASSO: That picture on the page has now allowed this story to take on another layer of meaning and help us maybe come to understand, in some way, what happened on September 11.

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OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Part of this presentation is to get schoolchildren to illustrate their feelings of anger. What's fascinating is how the book's ideas evoke thoughts about the September 11 attacks.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE CHILD: They knew that they were going to start a war, and they knew that they were going to make them mad, and I think that that was just wrong.

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OPPENHEIM: And how children see that violence, just as in the Cain and Abel story, has changed the world.

In Gary, Indiana, I am Keith Oppenheim reporting.

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