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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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).<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Who’s going to believe him now?<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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. Chet Roscow is ten and he’s never lived anywhere for long, because his papa is always chasing a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14230,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":7721,"lr_next_read_anchor":"I Survived the Eruption of Mount St Helens, 1980","lr_seo_hook":"A lonely new boy, a prank war and a real shark in a New Jersey creek.","lr_series_id":374,"lr_series_name":"I Survived","lr_series_position":2,"lr_series_label":"","lr_author_order":"604"},"book_tag":[1045],"age_group":[24],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[604],"class_list":["post-14231","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-adventure-books","age_group-books-for-9-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-lauren-tarshis"],"yoast_title":"I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916 by Lauren Tarshis | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A lonely new boy, a prank war and a real shark in a New Jersey creek. For ages 9+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n