I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916

Lauren Tarshis's I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916 is a tense true-history adventure for 9 year olds about a boy who spots a shark in a quiet little creek and can't get anyone to believe him.

What happens

Chet Roscow is ten and he's never lived anywhere for long, because his papa is always chasing a new business idea. This year he's staying with his Uncle Jerry in Elm Hills, New Jersey, and working at the diner for fifteen cents a day.

It's July and so hot that horses are fainting in the street. The newspaper says a shark has killed a swimmer at the seaside. Uncle Jerry laughs it off as a hoax, because everybody knows sharks don't attack people (only old Captain Wilson disagrees).

Three boys from the tile factory invite Chet down to the creek to swim. He's thrilled. Then they trick him with a shark fin that turns out to be a chipped grey tile.

So Chet gets them back with ketchup, mud and the town's legend of the Creek Devil. It works far too well. His new friends storm off, and a few days later he goes swimming alone and something huge hits him in the chest.

Who's going to believe him now?

For a long stretch this is a warm, funny story about a lonely boy trying to belong somewhere, and Uncle Jerry is lovely. Then the shark arrives, and you read the rest with your hand over your mouth.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Chet and the other boys are made up, but the attacks were real. Four people were killed that July, one of them a boy of eleven, and the book prints newspaper reports of the deaths. One quotes a dying man describing how the shark took his leg. Chet is bitten too, and it's on the page. There's blood on the dock, a chunk of his calf is gone and he has to bite down on a rag while the nurses clean the wound. He has nightmares afterwards, and his friends tell him the shark was caught with human bones in its stomach.

That's a lot. A child who's nervous of the sea or squeamish about blood should probably leave it for now. The shark-mad child who wants the true story, and can cope with it being true, will be gripped.

What to read next

It's the second I Survived book, and they all stand alone. If the three friends were the best bit, I Survived the Eruption of Mount St Helens, 1980 has another trio. Jess and the twins Sam and Eddie have a secret handshake, a family diner and a creepy local legend of their own.