I Survived Series Is a Bestselling Survivor

Witness At the height of the pandemic, when my security was limited, I advised my children to write about what had happened. The only thing I knew for sure, I explained, was that their grandchildren would want to hear what it was like to live this time. Let’s just say the pens in our kitchen didn’t quite fly out of the mug, and no one was stealing my laptop charger to run Google Docs.

But the children’s TV bestseller lists support my theory that the younger generation has a huge appetite for other people’s troubles. How else can we explain the 67-week run? Lauren TarshisA 21-volume juggernaut from the I Survived books that explores the box office of natural disasters (such as Hurricane Katrina and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake), man-made tragedies (Holocaust, September 11), and various garden-related nightmares (attacks by). sharks and grizzly bears) through the eyes of young narrators who live to tell the story. Apart from the three non-fiction spinoffs, the books are novels, but Tarshis does extensive research and includes reading suggestions, additional historical context, and useful information (for example, “How to Stay Safe in a Hurricane”) at the end of each paperback.

“For some kids, learning about someone else’s difficulty is a way of navigating within ourselves,” Tarshis said. “I think there’s something to be said for being able to read about something from afar and face your own fears.”

As an editor for Scholastic who oversees more than 25 classroom magazines, Tarshis knows that reluctant readers are drawn to articles about real people. (He used to be also reluctant about the written word: “I didn’t read a book cover until I was 14.”) I Survived was born from the idea that, as Tarshis put it, “you don’t have a book cover”. being the kid reading ‘Lord of the Rings’ under the duvet, wondering what’s going on in the world.

A decade’s worth of writing on disasters will come at a heavy price; When Tarshis visits the classrooms, she jokes that her next drama will be called Rainbow Cupcakeland. But hearing from her fans makes her focus on I Survived, which now includes four comics: “They come to me and they’re all grass-stained and smell like milk, and they have a lot of things they want to tell me.” said Tarshis. “I tell them, you should go home and talk to your parents, grandparents, and caregiver because we all have a connection to history in some way.”