Terry Lynn Johnson’s Survivor Diaries Overboard is a survival adventure for 9 year olds about two kids thrown off a whale-watching boat into freezing sea.<\/p>\n
Travis is eleven and on holiday in Washington State with his family. Seeing a whale is the thing he’s been looking forward to most. His mum makes him wear a bulky red survival suit on the boat, which is SO embarrassing (and turns out to matter more than anyone could have guessed).<\/p>\n
He gets chatting to Marina, the captain’s twelve-year-old daughter. She knows everything about the sea and makes sure he knows it.<\/p>\n
Then, while nearly everyone is crowded on one side of the boat watching orcas, a huge wave hits. The boat flips over.<\/p>\n
Travis and Marina come up in the water, a long way from the life raft. Marina’s wrist is broken. All they’ve got is a piece of plywood to cling to.<\/p>\n
The whole story is Travis telling a reporter what happened, months later. So you know from the very first page that he made it home. That’s actually really reassuring, because the middle is tense!<\/p>\n
It’s packed with proper survival know-how, all woven into the story. Why you keep your knees tucked up in cold water. How to make a fire without matches. How to get drinking water out of dew and a plastic bag. Travis works a lot of it out himself, and you can feel how proud he is when it works.<\/p>\n
He has his own worries too. Since a nasty fall in gymnastics he’s been scared of heights. And the one way to get help means climbing a very tall tree.<\/p>\n
A harbour seal keeps popping up beside them in the water, and Travis calls her Selkie. She’s a lovely touch.<\/p>\n
It’s worth being aware that for a big chunk of the book Travis doesn’t know if his mum, dad and sister got into the life raft. Marina talks quite a lot about how long they’ve got before the cold gets them. If your child is anxious about boats or deep water, that could be a lot.<\/p>\n
For a reader who loves real-life-feeling adventures, though, it’s gripping. They might even come away knowing what to do if they fell in cold water.<\/p>\n
If this one grips them, there’s another survivor’s interview and a mountain of snow in Avalanche! Twins Ashley and Ryan are skiing in Wyoming when the whole slope starts to move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Terry Lynn Johnson’s Survivor Diaries Overboard is a survival adventure for 9 year olds about two kids thrown off a whale-watching boat into freezing sea. Travis is eleven and on holiday in Washington State with his family. Seeing a whale is the thing he’s been looking forward to most. His mum makes him wear a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":11799,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":8765,"lr_next_read_anchor":"Avalanche!","lr_seo_hook":"Two kids swept off a whale-watching boat and left to survive on their own."},"book_tag":[1045],"age_group":[24],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[969],"class_list":["post-8764","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-terry-lynn-johnson"],"yoast_title":"Survivor Diaries 1 – Overboard! by Terry Lynn Johnson | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"Two kids swept off a whale-watching boat and left to survive on their own. For ages 9+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n