I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor, 1941

Lauren Tarshis's I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor, 1941 is a fast, frightening story from real history for 9 year olds about a tough New York kid who's secretly planning to run away when war lands on his doorstep.

What happens

Danny Crane has only been in Hawaii a few weeks. He's eleven, his ma is a nurse, and she moved them there to get him away from trouble in New York City.

Danny can't stand it. All he wants is his grubby old street and his best friend Finn.

Finn's in hospital, you see. He fell from a rusty fire escape that Danny talked him into climbing. So Danny's got a plan. There's a ship sailing for the mainland in the morning and he's going to hide on it.

Then a little boy called Aki turns up in the back garden, hugging his new "puppy". (It's a baby wild boar. Its mother is not pleased.)

Aki is about three and he's the best thing in the book. He knows every plane over the harbour by name. His mum gives Danny lunch and tells him his ma is lucky to have a boy like him.

Is she, though? That's the question sitting under all the noise.

The next morning Aki's at the door again, pointing at the sky. These aren't his planes.

The very first page is the attack. Then you get the day before, so you know exactly who Danny is when it comes. There are plenty of Kabooms and rat-tat-tats and it races along.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

This was a real attack and people die in it.

Danny is shot at on a beach. He sees a man vanish in an explosion, and someone he knows is badly wounded with a lot of blood. We're told more than a thousand men are lost on one ship. Finn's fall is described too (that's backstory, told early on).

Afterwards, Japanese families on the island are treated as suspects. That might need a chat.

So it's not one for a child who's upset by war or injuries. But for a history-mad child who can take the scary bits, it's gripping. It's the fourth I Survived book, but each one has a new child and a new disaster, so they can start here.

What to read next

If the war side is what grabs them, I Survived the American Revolution, 1776 has another eleven-year-old with a plan to hide on a ship. Nate has a small shadow of his own too (three-year-old Theo, who is VERY keen on pirates).