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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
My students loved this book! They are all fans of I Survived, but having one read aloud to them made their days! They often did not want me to stop reading even though it was time to move on to our next task of the day.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book is really good! A young boy by the name of Dex has always wanted to see a tornado. But, when one gets too close to Joplin, his home, what will he do?
Dex describes what it looked and felt like during the Joplin tornado. Tarshis, as always, gives quick chapters that leave the reader hanging on for the next one. Great sense of thrill and human survival.
adventurous
emotional
informative
fast-paced
So I think this book does a really good job of showing two things. 1) what’s it’s like to survive a tornado. 2) what’s it can be like having a sibling in the military.
While this book is accurate it’s by no means gory or explicit, so it’s perfect for elementary readers. Yet it still get the point across and it’s easy to identify with the characters.
While this book is accurate it’s by no means gory or explicit, so it’s perfect for elementary readers. Yet it still get the point across and it’s easy to identify with the characters.
My son enjoys the"I Survived" series, but this is the first one I picked up to read. It was quick (I finished it in less than an hour) and definitely written for elementary-aged kids. Still, there was a lot I enjoyed about it:
- the emotional, scary episode of the tornado is dealt with in a way that feels both authentic and appropriate for young readers
- the focus on resilience; when Dex realizes it's up to him to help Dr. Gage, he calls upon strength he didn't know he had. (The author mentions at the end of the book that resilience is a theme in all of her "I Survived" books)
- nostalgia. I could identify with Dex: I spent my elementary-school years in Joplin. We lived in the north part of town, though I did attend church in what would someday be the tornado's path, just south of Twentieth Street. As a kid, I don't remember thinking of it as quite the "small town" that's portrayed here in this book (when we moved when I was twelve, we moved to a town without a Walmart or a mall or even a Taco Bell or a Wendy's - Joplin had all of those). I do think of Joplin as a friendly place, though. Nice to visit it in a book.
- the emotional, scary episode of the tornado is dealt with in a way that feels both authentic and appropriate for young readers
- the focus on resilience; when Dex realizes it's up to him to help Dr. Gage, he calls upon strength he didn't know he had. (The author mentions at the end of the book that resilience is a theme in all of her "I Survived" books)
- nostalgia. I could identify with Dex: I spent my elementary-school years in Joplin. We lived in the north part of town, though I did attend church in what would someday be the tornado's path, just south of Twentieth Street. As a kid, I don't remember thinking of it as quite the "small town" that's portrayed here in this book (when we moved when I was twelve, we moved to a town without a Walmart or a mall or even a Taco Bell or a Wendy's - Joplin had all of those). I do think of Joplin as a friendly place, though. Nice to visit it in a book.
I picked up this book to see what all the fuss was about. Working in a children’s library, I can’t keep the books in this series on my shelves. I understand why they’re popular. They are a quick and easy read, they are educational, and they are intense which leads to them being page turners for kids with short attention spans.
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Another great story in this series. Students will love this one.
As usual, Lauren Tarshis has done an excellent job of researching and putting together a fictional account of a famous disaster. This time she has tackled the Joplin, Missouri tornado of 2011. Her main character is Dex, who lives in Joplin with his parents (who both teach at the high school), and his dog Zeke. Dex happens to meet a storm chaser who is in town and they realize that the chaser, Dr. Gage, and Dex's father went to college together. Dex is very excited that his parents agree to let him go storm chasing with Dr. Gage. The storm chaser tells them that he is working on collecting data about the sounds that storms make as they form tornadoes and that Dex will be helping him launch the pods that collect the information. Although they keep an eye on the weather and the radar, Dex and Dr. Gage still manage to get pelted by hailstones. And then thing start to get really intense. I don't want to give away too many exciting details, so let me just say that what Dex experiences is probably as difficult as some of the training his brother Jeremy has gone through as a Navy SEAL.
Like all the other books in the series, this one has extra material after the story to help readers understand the actual historical event that inspired the author. There is a timeline, a list of questions and answers about topics in the story, and a list of sources for additional information. The author also explains why she chose to write about this particular bit of history and why she writes about disasters in general. She states, "...my books are about resilience - the ability most of us have to recover after experiencing something difficult or painful." So the stories are really about people, not disasters.
Fans of the series will be thrilled with this new title. If you haven't tried any of the I Survived books yet, why not give this one a chance? Once you do, you will probably be hooked like the rest of us.
I read an e-book provided by the publisher through edelweiss.
Like all the other books in the series, this one has extra material after the story to help readers understand the actual historical event that inspired the author. There is a timeline, a list of questions and answers about topics in the story, and a list of sources for additional information. The author also explains why she chose to write about this particular bit of history and why she writes about disasters in general. She states, "...my books are about resilience - the ability most of us have to recover after experiencing something difficult or painful." So the stories are really about people, not disasters.
Fans of the series will be thrilled with this new title. If you haven't tried any of the I Survived books yet, why not give this one a chance? Once you do, you will probably be hooked like the rest of us.
I read an e-book provided by the publisher through edelweiss.