Saturday, October 9, 2021

I Survived Book w Magic References

 


There are a series of books called The I Survived Series by Lauren Tarshis. They are published by Scholastic and the books have been a New York Times Bestselling Series. Her latest book covers the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. That is where I come in. Mrs. Tarshis contacted me a few months ago because she wanted to include Harry Kellar in her story. I was more than happy to provide her with information regarding the famous illusionist. Originally, he was going to play a key part in the story. 


Fast forward several months, and now the book is out. I quickly purchased a copy to see who she included Kellar in her story...except he wasn't there. Mrs. Tarshis has decided to not include Kellar but instead use her own fictional character, Antonio Meraki, instead. But to my delight, she still included several pages in the back about Kellar and mentions yours truly!

To explain a bit more, the author takes real life tragic events and creates a fictional story around them. In this case, the characters are fictional, the story is fictional, but the overall event, The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 really did happen. She also includes additional historical facts about the Hurricane in the back of the book. And she includes a short piece on how to survive a hurricane. 

Other nods to magic include, the main characters name is Charlie Miller, whether that was accidental or on purpose, I don't know. But it's fun to think of our own Charlie Miller as being the 11 year old main character in this book. Also, Houdini is mentioned a couple times in the story. And the name of a popular method to make a coin vanish, The French Drop. There's also an interesting twist of Kellar's Floating Lady, but reversed...you'll have to read the book to find out. 

I totally enjoyed the book! It was a gripping story, with moments of fun, drama, tragedy, and bravery. I can understand how the books are so popular. After you read one book, you want to find out what the next one is about. And there are 20 books in this series!

The I Survived books are for young readers 3rd-5th graders and they are at a 4th grade reading level. The books are available at your favorite bookstore or on Amazon.com and other online book retailers.


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