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 May 2006 Book Picks
Spotlight on Survival Stories
All Titles are available in the High School Library!
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The Forgotten Fire by Adam Bagdasarian
"It would be misleading to say that you will enjoy this novel, but it is certain that you will be captivated, frightened, and profoundly affected by it. It is based on the true story of a 12-year-old boy who survived the massacre that saw hundreds of thousands of Armenians murdered after the Young Turks came to power. In 1915, Vahan Kenderian lives a pampered life that he has no reason to believe will ever end. But end it does, and in a brutal way. After the disappearance of his father and uncle, Vahan witnesses the murder of his two eldest brothers in the garden of the family home and, after a forced march, loses the other members of his family one by one. He faces hunger, destitution, beatings, and sexual abuse, and is forced to watch as others are killed or raped as he crosses Turkey in an attempt to escape this persecution of his people. Throughout these experiences, he develops, matures, and strengthens his resolve, at the same time-understandably-learning to fear the loss of anyone he becomes close to."
--School Library Journal, December 2000
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The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
"The true, terrifying and grotesque story of an outbreat of the Ebola virus, and the bioharard SWAT team racing against time to contain it at an Army Research facilty in Virginia. in 1989."
-- Titlewave.com |
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Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
"Originally published: 1959. The story of a group of people who rely on their own courage and ingenuity to survive in a small Florida town that escaped nuclear bombing. " This books is considered to be a classic of science fiction. If you like it, you may also want to try On the Beach by Nevil Shute. |
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Far North by Will Hobbs
"Stranded in an uninhabited area of Canada's Northwest Territories, two teenagers and an old Indian hunter face a winter so brutal residents call it "The Hammer." Gabe, 15, has come to boarding school in Yellow Knife to be nearer his oilman father. When his taciturn Athapaskan roommate, Raymond, quits school to fly back to his village, Gabe goes along. A spur-of-the-moment trip to see spectacular Virginia Falls turns into disaster when plane and pilot are swept away. Gabe and Raymond are left with a small cache of survival gear, plus a third passenger, Raymond's great-uncle, Johnny Raven, to keep them alive. Johnny teaches his two charges rudimentary survival skills, then finds them an old cabin in which to hole up before he dies. Weeks and repeated brushes with death later, the destruction of their food supply by a grizzly bear forces them into a grueling trek to Raymond's home." -- Kirkus Review, 1996 |
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I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaust by Liva Bitton Jackson
"A memoir of Elli Friedmann in which she tells about her experiences at Auschwitz concentration camp where she was taken at the age of thirteen in 1944 when the Nazis invaded her native Hungary." -- Titlewave.com |
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