Tales of Survival

Having a rough go of it? You're not alone! Try one of the survival (physical and emotional) stories below - they make for compelling reading! To recommend a title for this growing list, please contact Mrs. O'Keefe.

PHYSICAL SURVIVAL

Earthquake in the Early Morning, by Mary Pope Osborne ; illustrated by Sal Murdocca
The magic tree house takes Jack and Annie to San Francisco in 1906, in time for them to experience one of the biggest earthquakes the United States had ever known.
New York: Random House, 2001, 72 p.

Earthquake Terror, by Peg Kehret
When an earthquake hits the isolated island in Northern California where his family is camping, twelve-year-old Jonathan must find a way to keep himself, his partially paralyzed sister and their dog alive until help arrives.
New York: Cobblehill Books, copyright 1996, 132 p.

Earthshake: Poems From the Ground Up, by Lisa Westberg Peters ; pictures by Cathie Felstead
Presents twenty-two poems about geology. End notes provide information about the earth's surface and interior, types of rocks, and how volcanoes, glaciers, and erosion modify the landscape.
New York: Greenwillow Books, 2003, 32 p.

Escaping the Giant Wave, by Peg Kehret
When an earthquake creates a tsunami while thirteen-year-old Kyle is babysitting his sister during a family vacation at a Pacific Coast resort, he tries to save himself, his sister, and a boy who has bullied him for years.
New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2003, 151 p.

High Tide in Hawaii, by Mary Pope Osborne
Jack and Annie travel in their Magic Tree House back to a Hawaiian island of long ago where they make friends, learn how to surf, and encounter a tsunami.
New York: Random House, 2003, 96 p.

Ice Drift, by Theodore Taylor (2005)
Two Inuit brothers must fend for themselves while stranded on an ice float that is adrift in the Greenland Strait.

PaperQuake: a Puzzle, by Kathryn Reiss
Certain that she is being drawn by more than coincidences into the lives of people living nearly 100 years ago, Violet, who feels like the odd sister in a set of triplets, searches for clues to help her avert an imminent tragedy.
San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace, copyright 1998, 264 p.

Quake!, by Joe Cottonwood
With their parents away at the 1989 World Series, fourteen-year-old Franny, her younger brother, and their cousin try to cope with the frightening events following an earthquake that destroys their home on Loma Prieta mountain.
New York: Scholastic Inc., 1995, 146 p.

Quake!: Disaster in San Francisco, 1906, by Gail Langer Karwoski
Tells the story of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake as seen through the eyes of Jacob, a thirteen-year-old Jewish boy who lives in a boarding house with his father and younger sister.
Atlanta: Peachtree, c2004, 153 p.

A Sea So Far, by Jean Thesman
After surviving the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fires, two teenage girls, a wealthy semi-invalid and her hired companion, travel together to Ireland and discover they share much in common, from a love of romance novels to grief over the loss of their mothers.
New York: Viking, 2001, 195 p.

The Shark Callers, by Eric Campbell
Two teenage boys, one on a shark hunt and the other traveling with his family, face the challenge of their lives when a volcano erupts, causing a massive tidal wave in the South Seas.
San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace, 1994, 232 p.

Storm-Blast, by Curtis Parkinson
Regan, Matt, and Carol have to depend on each other to survive when their small boat gets swallowed up in a fierce Caribbean storm.
Toronto, Ont.; Plattsburgh, N.Y.: Tundra Books, c2003, 156 p.

The Strange case of Baby H, by Kathryn Reiss
In the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, twelve-year-old Clara finds a baby left on the doorstep of her family's boarding house, and sets out to unravel the surrounding mysteries.
Middleton, Wis.: Pleasant Co., 2002, 163 p. (from the American Girl History Mysteries series, no. 18)

The Tears of the Salamander, by Peter Dickinson
When Alfredo, a twelve-year-old choir boy in eighteenth-century Italy, loses his family in a fire, he goes to live with Uncle Giorgio, who he discovers is a sorcerer in control of the fires of Mt. Etna with sinister plans for his nephew.
New York, N.Y.: Wendy Lamb Books, c2003, 197 p.

EMOTIONAL SURVIVAL

Speak, by Laure Halse Anderson