Books in When Disaster Strikes! series

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. When disaster strikes, the only thing you can count on is yourself! Noah and Emma Burton have traded the sand and surf of their Hawaiian home for a chilly stay in Alaska, and Noah isn't happy about it. His father may be a volcano expert, but why did they have to travel to the coldest, grayest place on earth when there are millions of volcanoes near Honolulu? Noah thinks he's in for the most boring vacation of his life. He couldn't have been more wrong! A day trip to a remote island turns deadly when a once-dormant volcano suddenly sputters to life in an eruption of epic proportions. Now Noah, Emma, and their new neighbor Alex must fight to survive rivers of molten lava and clouds of toxic ash if they want to make it off the island alive....

Thirteen-year-old Nathalie Vaughan struggles to save friends and neighbours on the night of Canada's Frank Slide disaster. At 4:00 am, April 29, 1903, Nathalie lies awake in the booming coal town of Frank, at the base of Turtle Mountain, listening for the whistle of a train--the Spokane Flyer, bringing her American cousin Helena for a visit. Instead, Nathalie hears rocks tumbling down the mountain onto the town and the railway track. She and her mother are safe, but what about others? As she helps search for survivors, desperate questions fill her mind. How many have died? Will the men inside the mine be safe? Will the train be stopped in time? That morning, the northeast face of Turtle Mountain dropped one hundred million tons of limestone on the town. Seventy-six people died, but twenty-three were rescued from under the rocks, seventeen escaped from the mine, and the Flyer was stopped in time. This is a beautifully written novel, with engaging characters and authentic historical detail. It's a story of discovery, as Nathalie - Nattie to her friends - finds her own strengths and skills and the courage to use them.

Murphy wants to grow up fast and be a fisherman. It's what men do in his small Newfoundland community. Then one cold day in 1929, a tsunami strikes the Burin Peninsula, destroying most of the out port and killing many people. Suddenly the twelve-year-old is doing a man's work, saving lives and caring for the people he loves. His dad died the day Murphy was born. Since no out port family can survive without a man to fish, his mom had to find a job in St. John's and Murphy stayed behind to be raised by his uncle and aunt. But Murphy has a grand plan. Soon he'll become a fisherman, build a house and bring his mom home to live with him. Then a day and night of terror begins with a small earthquake. An old-timer says there'll be a tidal wave coming, but people don't believe it. Murphy goes outside later to check and hears an odd sucking noise. All the water is gone from the harbour! It shoots back in a sixty-foot wave that fills the harbour and claws its way up the hill. He has only moments to save his aunt and cousins from the roaring water.

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. When disaster strikes, the only thing you can count on is yourself! A winter trip in the remote Michigan wilderness seemed like the perfect way for Jayden to get to know his new foster family. Though he doesn't have much in common with siblings Maggie and Connor, he's hoping they'll get to like each other over snow mobile races and steaming mugs of cocoa. But when the snow really starts to come down, the family van crashes and the three kids must go out into the bleak, white storm to search for help. Soon the wind is howling and night is starting to fall. Jayden, Maggie, and Connor will have to think fast, find shelter, watch out for bears, and somehow stay warm if they don't want to end up frozen in their tracks....

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. When disaster strikes, the only thing you can count on is yourself! Wyatt Anderson isn't thrilled that his prissy cousin is visiting his family's Oklahoma ranch. But it turns out Wyatt has bigger problems to deal with when a pair of dueling tornadoes lock the prairie in their sights.... Wyatt, Alison, and neighbors Joshua and Jackson have nowhere to run. And when the old barn is battered by the tornadoes' ferocious winds, the animals that live inside are in danger. Will Wyatt and his friends risk their own lives to protect them?

High above the crashing waves on the rugged west coast of Canada stands the lighthouse Nell calls home. It's a tiny world, just the ocean in front and the rainforest in back, but she loves every inch. So when Nell's father wants to send her away to school in Victoria, she refuses to go. Nell decides to become so helpful to her father that he can't send her away. Her big chance comes when the government runs a telegraph line though the forest, connecting the isolated lighthouses. Nell studies the Morse code manual, teaching herself how to be a telegraph operator. And her study pays off the night she sendsan S.O.S. for a stricken ship, aground on the rocks. She feels like a hero, until the telegraph tells her that the rescue went terribly wrong. What is the use of talking to other people if they can't help?Nell is through with rescues. But early one morning after a terrible storm, she sees yet another ship run aground in the Graveyard of the Pacific. Nell has to get help, but the storm has taken the telegraph lines down.All alone at the lighthouse, is there nothing she can do?This title is based on two famous west coast shipwrecks. In January 1906, The Valencia, carrying over 100 passengers and 65 crew, missed the turn into Juan de Fuca Strait and ran aground on the west coast of Vancouver Island. A mere eleven months later the Coloma followed. It was a deadly year for the Graveyard of the Pacific, one that spurred the government to build the West Coast Lifesaving Trail as a rescue route for shipwrecked mariners.

When disaster strikes, the only thing you can count on is yourself It had seemed like the perfect California day. But as Joey Flores walked home from the skate park with his friends, the ground began to tremble, and Joey knew they were headed for trouble.... The earthquake that followed devastated their neighborhood, collapsing a nearby overpass with Joey and Fiona on one side and Kevin and Dylan on the other. Now Joey and his friends must rescue each other, endure the aftershocks, and find a new way home as the earth cracks beneath their feet.

When Finn’s parents head off to some scientific mission on the other side of the world, leaving him with his grandparents on their Manitoba farm for a whole year, Finn is furious. He struggles to deal with his gran, his cantankerous great-grandfather and the less-than-friendly kids at school. But the gentle, lazy Red River flowing nearby gives Finn and his only friend, the mysterious Angus, their only peace. Finn learns that the Red River flows “backward”―from south to north―and this increases the possibility of it flooding again, as it has many times before. And so it does again, in 1997. Tension builds in the community when it becomes clear that they are going to have to prepare for “the big one.” As the floodwaters approach, the villagers quickly build a dike to try to save their community. But can they possibly succeed in the face of this flood? Will Finn get to fish for channel cats with his great-grandfather? Finn is dealing with problems, issues rise to a head and more than emotions overtake him when the Red River floods his grandparents’ home.

June 1912: Ella is surprised by her birthday gift from her mother, a Brownie camera and the advice to seek pictures of things that "don't belong." This is how Ella first notices Billy, a boy at her school who seems out of place. They become good friends, although Ella is sure Billy is keeping something from her. Ella soon realizes there are others to whom the "don't belong" tag applies. They include herself! Helping out at a tea for the women's rights group to which her mother belongs, Ella finds out about her place in society—or the lack of it. But there is someone else who is even more out of place, a stranger who pretends to be something he isn't, and he's up to no good. When Ella's mother's purse is raided, suspicion falls wrongly on Billy. Just as Ella is learning more about herself, her mother and her mysterious friend, the tornado (known then as a cyclone) arrives, bringing devastation to the city. It's the substandard housing of the poor that's worst-hit. But the storm also reveals a few hidden secrets. Can Ella, armed only with her camera and its evidence, help her friend? Based on the story of a real 1912 tornado.

A daring, impulsive boy, Jack lives to sail, have adventures and get in trouble. When the Noronic docks at Ward Island, he and his friends gather to admire it, but you need an invitation from one of the passengers to come on board. Jack spots Henry, a quiet, lonely boy from Boston with not much knack for making friends, and talks him into inviting Jack and his group to tour the ship. The Noronic is everything Jack has dreamed of, a grand Great Lakes cruise ship, equipped with the latest features, its top three decks full of fashionable passengers. Jack vows that one day he will captain this ship. And in the course of the tour, Jack and Henry become friends. Jack can't sleep that night and looks out towards the pier. To his horror, he sees that the ship is on fire and without thinking he tears down to the harbour and takes out the island's only motorboat, hoping to help the passengers. People crowd the deck because the only way off the ship, three decks below, is already engulfed. Jack sees Henry on deck and calls to him as Henry's dad helps him jump in the water. Jack is able to pull Henry and many others from the water although Henry's dad is lost. Another rescue boat joins him and between them they save 51 people, although 118 perish. Jack is a hero of sorts, but many people blame him for taking the boat out on his own instead of calling someone older to help.

Twelve-year-old cousins Alice and Sophie are a study in contrasts. Alice, a tall brunette who lives in Montreal with only her dad, is a fi gure skater with a lot of talent and a bit of an attitude. Sophie, a short blond who lives on a dairy farm with her mom, dad and spooky little brother Sebastian, loves looking after their herd of cows. In January 1998, it starts to rain and it won't stop. The rain turns to ice and causes big trouble. First, the roads are closed, and then the power lines come down and the electricity is gone. Alice struggles to stay warm, alone in the dark, because her dad is working around the clock for Quebec Hydro. Meanwhile, Sophie and her family fi ght to look after their high-maintenance dairy cows without power to run the water pumps, the milking machines or anything else.

Describes the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., detailing the sequence of events that occurred over the two days following the eruption, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of the residents of Pompeii and the town's disappearance from history until its rediscovery in the eighteenth century.Describes the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., detailing the sequence of events that occurred over the two days following the eruption, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of the residents of Pompeii and the town's disappearance from history until its rediscovery in the eighteenth century.