When I got to about third grade I started venturing into a new book series called I Survived. This is a collection of twenty books written by Lauren Tarshis. It follows kids who lived through various disasters, such as the sinking of the Titanic or the earthquake of 1906. These were the first books that led me to love the genre of historical fiction. It also was the first book that was not all rainbows and butterflies. Instead, these children who were my age were trying to survive and fighting for their lives. I know that sounds morbid, however, it was written in such a way that it allowed me not to be scared. Instead, I had myself captivated, and when I was done reading I would go look up more information. Through this, I was able to learn so much about history without even realizing that I was learning.

I think it is also important to note how these books allowed for me to learn better in school. This introduction to history made me realize that learning could be fun instead of boring. Previously I thought that the only time of the day at school I enjoyed was recess. From this series, I was able to understand my love for learning and more importantly my love of history. Ever since this series I tended to watch more documentaries and learn more about history on many different topics. I do pride myself on knowing various topics and understanding many different historical events that have made huge impacts around the world.

During this time as well, I was struggling to make friends in school and books allowed me to find an escape when I felt alone. It also allowed me to put myself in a story to take my anxiety away from going to school. It made me excited to go to school because I was not scared of being alone. Seeing the books were only in my classroom, I was excited for reading time every day because I knew I could escape reality for a little bit. I could imagine myself in these books and think that I was also trying to live through these disasters.

One important note as well is how much credit this author deserved for being able to capture these events in a way that did not scare children. Many times these types of books can become too graphic and hard for a younger audience to read. However, the way she described events did not scare me, instead, I was eager to read more. It created a nice way to present such a horrific event to a child and not make them want to put down the book. I believe this is important because I want other children who are now in third grade to experience and find this love for history as I did.

Overall, this book series allowed me not to feel alone at school, make me interested in history, and allowed me to better understand many different events that occurred that I otherwise would have been too scared to read about.