Survivors: Extraordinary Tales from the Wild and Beyond by David Long and Kerry Hyndman

Survivors: Extraordinary Tales from the Wild and Beyond by David Long and Kerry Hyndman
Buy Survivors: Extraordinary Tales from the Wild and Beyond by David Long and Kerry Hyndman at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Children's Non-Fiction
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: A collection of twenty-three stories of survival against the odds. It's uplifting and inspirational in equal measure.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 192	Date: October 2016
Publisher: Faber and Faber
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-0571316014
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There can be few people who are not captivated by stories of survival - those people who by chance, through knowledge but mostly because of their strength of will, survive against all the odds. Survivors is a collection of such stories of people, some of whom knew that what they were doing was dangerous, but many are those who found themselves in situations which seemed impossible, but who didn't give up. The result is a wonderful mixture of the scariness of the peril and the glorious uplift of survival. It's insightful, inspirational and all absolutely true.

Juliane Koepcke is one of the people who had no reason to believe that she was getting into danger. It was Christmas Eve 1971 and the seventeen-year old and her mother were flying home across the Peruvian rainforest when their plane was hit by a violent storm and broke up. Still in her seat she fell two miles and landed in the forest. Although injured she could still walk and using all her knowledge of the forest she trekked through the jungle for ten days until she found safety. She was the only one of the 91 passengers on the plane who survived.

Some of the tales relate to relatively recent events, but history isn't neglected. There's the story of Douglas Mawson, the sole survivor of an Antarctic exploration in 1912. Going back even further, Hugh Glass was a trapper near the Missouri River in 1823 when he was forced to wrestle a grizzly bear and broke his leg in the process. It was fortunate that he was resourceful and good with his hands as he had no option but to set his own leg. Taking this approach even further was Leonid Rogozov, a doctor who operated on himself in Antarctica in 1961. Most of the stories are from the late seventies to as recently as 2014, with a good geographical spread and a variety of climatic conditions. There's peril for every taste between these covers!

What I did like is that most of the names were fresh to me: there were few yawns as old stories were rehashed. The story of Ernest Shackleton is well known, but stands repeating and like all the other stories in Survivors it's well and simply told, without too much emphasis on the gruesome. There are twenty three stories in all, mostly six to eight pages in length and all supported by full-colour illustrations. If had to quibble (and don't I always?) then I'd have loved to have seen some maps and a table of content/index would have helped - but these are not deal breakers.

If you're looking for a present for a child, or even for an adult searching for an introduction to the subject then this is the sort of book which you look at and are rather surprised that the cover price is not a lot higher. It's a big hardback with high production values. I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Post Office.

Children to whom this book appeals will probably also enjoy Under Earth, Under Water by Aleksandra Mizielinski, Daniel Mizielinski and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator).

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You can read more book reviews or buy Survivors: Extraordinary Tales from the Wild and Beyond by David Long and Kerry Hyndman at Amazon.com.

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