Five Epic Disasters (I Survived True Stories Series #1)

by Lauren Tarshis

Overview

From the author of the New York Times-bestselling I Survived series come five harrowing true stories of survival, featuring real kids in the midst of epic disasters.

From a group of students surviving the 9.0 earthquake that set off a historic tsunami in Japan, to a boy nearly frozen on the prairie in 1888, these unforgettable kids lived to tell tales of unimaginable destruction -- and, against all odds, survival.

Read their incredible stories:
The Children’s Blizzard, 1888
The Titanic Disaster, 1912
The Great Boston Molasses Flood, 1919
The Japanese Tsunami, 2011
The Henryville Tornado, 2012

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545789745
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	09/30/2014
Series:	I Survived Series
Sold by:	Scholastic, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	334,753
File size:	21 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Lauren Tarshis is the editor of Scholastic's Storyworks magazine and group editorial director for language arts for Scholastic classroom magazines, in addition to being the author of the I Survived series and the critically acclaimed novels EMMA-JEAN LAZARUS FELL OUT OF A TREE and EMMA-JEAN LAZARUS FELL IN LOVE. She lives in Westport, Connecticut, and can be found online at www.laurentarshis.com.

Editorial Reviews

True stories are often more interesting than fiction. This book, one in the “I Survived” series, includes five true stories about world disasters and the people who survive them. The first story is about the 1888 blizzard in the Dakota Territory and Nebraska. After being confined indoors for weeks because of below zero degrees temperatures, the children are allowed to go to school when it is twenty degrees. Then the blizzard comes. When the storm causes a hole in the school house roof, one teacher ties the children together and leads them through the storm to a home. At another school, parents with sleds take the children home. One child is lost in the snow storm, but his brother miraculously finds him huddled in the snow. Another child takes refuge in a barn and huddles next to a pig to keep warm. The second story is about the Titanic sinking in 1912. Jack Thayer, seventeen, recounts his experiences on the Titanic beginning at 11:00 P.M. to 2:30 A. M. when he decides the boat is sinking, jumps overboard, and is assisted by four men on top of an overturned lifeboat. Jack is rescued, but his father remains on the sinking ship. The third story is about a molasses flood in Boston in 1919. When a leaky storage tank breaks, a flow of molasses twenty-five feet high and one hundred sixty feet wide covers the streets and causes buildings to collapse! Twenty-one people are killed, and 150 are injured. The last two stories are the Japanese tsunami of 2011 and the Henryville, Indiana, tornado of 2012. After each story, Tarshis includes facts about that type of disaster, brief information about other similar disasters, how she acquires her information, and why she chooses each disaster. For example, the blizzard story includes information about the worst blizzards in the United States and facts about blizzards. The author keeps the story details simple. By telling the stories from a child’s viewpoint, she makes them appealing to children. The blizzard, tornado, and tsunami stories can be used to supplement weather units. There is a table of contents, source pages, and a photo credit page. Reviewer: Jeanna Potts; Ages 7 to 10.

Children's Literature - Jeanna Potts

10/01/2014
Gr 2–5—Tarshis retells the stories of five natural disasters, including the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, the Children's Blizzard of 1888, and the Henryville Tornado in 2012, from the third-person perspective of a young person who survived each of the events. The narratives are factual yet still lively and suspenseful enough to hook readers. Students will also devour the author's "files," a brief conclusion to each tale that includes maps, fact boxes, survival tips, and her inspiration for each story. For instance, Tarshis relates how she first learned about Walter Allen nearly freezing to death in a prairie blizzard from reading David Laskin's The Children's Blizzard (HarperCollins, 2004). Black-and-white illustrations and photos are numerous and appealing, such as a child holding baseball-sized hail in Henryville and a woman in a long gown working out in the Titanic's fitness room. Students wishing to read lengthier treatments of the disasters will find suggestions at the book's end. Ideal for a high-interest pick or a read-aloud for older students.—Vicki Reutter, State University of New York at Cortland

School Library Journal