Series · children's nonfiction
I Survived True Stories
The I Survived True Stories series by Lauren Tarshis has 4 books and is best read in publication order, starting with Five Epic Disasters (2014).
- Books
- 4 books
- First published
- 2014
- Status
- hiatus
- Last checked
Start here: Five Epic Disasters (2014) — then read straight through in publication order.
Reading order
The order the books were released — the default way to read the series.
- Book 1:
Five Epic Disasters
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Five Epic Disasters - Book 2:
Nature Attacks!
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Nature Attacks! - Book 3:
Tornado Terror
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Tornado Terror - Book 4:
Courageous Creatures
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Courageous Creatures
About the I Survived True Stories series
The nonfiction companion line to Lauren Tarshis's I Survived novels, I Survived True Stories trades fictional narrators for real kids who lived through real disasters. Each volume gathers several short, illustrated true accounts around a theme -- epic disasters, animal attacks, tornadoes, courageous animals -- built from historical research and firsthand testimony rather than the survival-adventure fiction format of the main series.
Where the numbered I Survived novels use a single invented narrator to dramatize one historical event, these books are anthology-style nonfiction: several real stories per volume, each a few pages long, aimed at the same upper-elementary readers who come to the series for disaster history but are ready for the true accounts behind it.
Frequently asked questions
How many I Survived True Stories books are there?
Four: Five Epic Disasters (2014), Nature Attacks! (2015), Tornado Terror (2017) and Courageous Creatures (2021).
Is I Survived True Stories fiction or nonfiction?
Nonfiction. Unlike the numbered I Survived novels, which use an invented narrator to dramatize one historical disaster, each True Stories volume is an anthology of several real, researched accounts of people (or animals) who survived real events.
Do I need to read I Survived True Stories to follow the main series?
No. They're standalone nonfiction companions, not required reading for the numbered I Survived novels.
Is I Survived True Stories still ongoing?
No new volume has been announced since Courageous Creatures (2021). This page marks the line as on hiatus rather than completed, since Lauren Tarshis has not declared it finished.
Reading order last verified .