I Survived the Japanese Tsunami, 2011, by Lauren Tarshis

In the wake of his father's death, Ben, his younger brother Harry, and his mother, travel to Japan to visit his dad's brother, whom he calls Ojisan. Ben has not really dealt with his father's death in a healthy way - he's torn down photos of him, stopped playing basketball (which they used to play together), and essentially just tried to erase his memory.

However, disaster soon strikes Japan. During the massive tsunami, Ben is separated from his family, yet somehow manages to stay alive and make it to a local school for shelter. He realizes, that through all of this, he was thinking of his dad and things his dad had taught him. He would not have survived the tragedy without the memories of his father.

Just like all the other I Survived books, I know this will be a big hit in my classroom. The kids love these survival stories, and I like them because they also teach them about real-world events.

Into That Forest, by Louis Nowra

It's crazy to think how quickly we can lose what makes us 'human' - things like speech - but that's exactly what happens to two girls in Into that Forest. Hannah and Becky live simple, rural lives, but find their worlds turned upside down when Hannah's parents are killed in a boating accident in the Tasmanian bush. A pair of tigers - a male and female - approaches the girls and leads them to their shelter. At first, Becky is resistant, holding out hope that they will be rescued, but it's not long before the two girls have abandoned all of their human ways. They sleep with the lions, hunt with the lions, walk on all fours, and communicate with grunts and growls; they completely lose their ability to make words.

Years later, Becky's father discovers the girls after hearing reports that two humans were spotted hunting with tigers. He seemingly brutally captures the girls and attempts to assimilate them back into society. But after all they've been through, everyone involved discovers that this re-assimilation will be nearly impossible - they can't fully recoup their lost ways. One thing the girls will never lose, though, is their tragic bond.

I thought the idea behind this novel was incredibly interesting, but I found it a little too graphic for my taste. The descriptions of eating raw meat while with the tigers was a little too much for me to handle. My students do like survival stories, but I tend to think this might be a little much for them as well.

Gone, by Michael Grant

A group of English teachers on twitter suggested Gone for my male students who have a hard time finding books that they can get into. I think that a lot of my boys would have gotten into this book, I just wish it was shorter! It seems that no matter how great I make a book sound in a booktalk, length is what gets them every time. I'll have to think of a really great way to sell this series to them so they can overlook the sheer volume of it!

Anyway, Gone is the beginning of a series that chronicles the lives of kids in Perdido Beach, CA. One day, while they're going about their normal lives, all adults and teens over the age of 15 just disappear from existence, in front of their eyes. They begin calling it the "poof," and the remains of the population - all kids under the age of 15 - struggle to make sense of what it might mean, and how to make do in a world without adults. Even worse than the adult disappearance factor, a towering wall with no visible breaking point has trapped them within their town - there's no way out. On top of that, there are animals with strange mutations, like coyotes that can talk, out to get the kids.

Protagonist Sam takes the lead as the stereotypical "good guy", and is rivaled by a vigilante seeming "bad kid" Caine, from nearby Coates Academy. Sam and Caine both possess superhuman powers, which they discover that many others among them also have. But the two boys are more connected than they initially think - I'll let you figure out how :) - and the novel becomes a bully vs. nice kid all-out war for control of the area, which they call "The FAYZ".

I can't wait to read more of the series, or to recommend it to kids next year!

The Raft, by S.A. Bodeen

A while ago, I read another of Bodeen's books, The Gardener and loved it, as did all the students I lent it out to. This book, The Raft, is entirely different from The Gardener, which I liked - I love when authors are able to pull off all genres and types of stories.

The Raft is about a girl named Robie who lives in the Midway Atoll, a group of islands somewhere near Hawaii. Midway is extremely isolated, and when Robie gets sick of the lack of civilization, she goes to visit her aunt "AJ" in Honolulu. Robie's return trip to Midway, though - via cargo plane - goes terribly wrong and she finds herself surviving a plane crash (or, as the airlines would call it, a "water landing"), trying desperately to survive in the middle of the ocean, hopefully making it to shore. To make matters worse, Robie's parents did not know she was on the flight, so they don't know to look for her. Robie's sole companion is the co-pilot of the plane, named Max, who fared much worse than her in the crash. The relationship between Robie and Max made me think a lot of Pi in Life of Pi...I couldn't tell throughout the novel if Max was really there with Robie, or if he was a hallucination, or just a coping mechanism. You'll have to read to figure it out!

For me, this book wasn't one of my favorites. I can't really put my finger on why, it just didn't do it for me. But, my kids are obsessed with survival stories, so I'm sure this one will be a hit in my classroom when school begins in August.

The 5th Wave, by Rick Yancey

I can think of several of my students who would enjoy The 5th Wave, but I honestly found it kind of confusing.

The book is about several characters and how their lives intertwine, but mainly it's about a girl named Cassie.  Cassie's life is turned upside down when a series of "waves" of an alien invasion begin. The 1st Wave is a huge electromagnetic pulse that renders all electronics - including cars - useless. This is followed by four more waves of increasing atrocity, including a violent plague, which wipes out Cassie's mother. Cassie finds herself alone, determined to find her little brother, Sammy, whom she was separated from at a refugee camp. She comes into contact with the mysterious Evan Walker along the way; she is torn between trusting him and letting him help her, or assuming the worst...that he's part of the invasion. Throughout the novel, things are never really what they seem, you can never tell who's lying, and people are brainwashed to believe something that isn't real. 

There were several parts of the book that really confused me - like what exactly the "aliens" were. It never really made sense to me. Evan tried to explain it to Cassie once, but it still seemed sketchy to me. I found myself skipping pages sometimes, too, trying to get to the good parts.