Disaster In The Indian Ocean: Tsunami 2004 (Monumental Milestones:) (Monumental Milestones: Great Events of Modern Times) [Library Binding]

John Torres (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 11 and up | Grade Level: 6 and up | Series: Monumental Milestones: Great Events of Modern Times

The disaster in the Indian Ocean started with a massive undersea earthquake off the coast of Indonesia. What followed was a surge of water called a tsunami that killed thousands of people in nearly a dozen countries. Water rose up miles inland and destroyed everything in its path. Children were ripped from their parents’ arms, husbands and wives were lost to each other forever. This is their story. But more importantly, this is a story of hope, of how people woke up to destroyed cities and missing children and did not give up. They showed what they were made of by licking their wounds and then trying to find their lives again. This is also the story of how the world responded with the biggest humanitarian effort in history. Countries from all over the world sent money, food, water, soldiers, and doctors. Nothing like this has ever happened in our world before, and although the world responded in a big way, hopefully it will never happen again.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8–The strength of this work is the inclusion of survivors' stories based on personal interviews during the author's visit to Indonesia in January 2005. The accounts include a British girl who recognized the coming tsunami from her studies and warned her family; an Indonesian woman who lost her baby; a vacationing nurse who helped secure vaccinations and other medical supplies to show her appreciation for the people who saved her son from the water; and a woman who lost a total of 40 relatives, including 4 of her 6 children and her husband. FYInfo pages explain the factual side of the tsunami, U.S.-Muslim relations, the threat posed by the area's separatist movements, the delivery of water purifiers, and the risk of tsunamis in the United States. Color photos and graphics are often small. Still, the book excels for its depiction of the personal impact of the destruction, supplementing Gail B. Stewart's Catastrophe in Southern Asia: The Tsunami of 2004 (Gale, 2005), which is more thorough but less personal.–Jeffrey A. French, Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library, Willowick, OH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 5-8. This slim but dense volume in the Monumental Milestones: Great Events of Modern Times series emerges from the author's personal trip to Indonesia after the December 26, 2004, catastrophe, "where he witnessed the devastation firsthand and spoke to dozens of survivors." Primary-source accounts, many taken from Torres' own interviews, chillingly recreate the tsunami's initial strike, its chaotic aftermath, and the challenges of recovery. At times Torres' writing is emotional and uncontrolled, as when he imagines Indonesia as a phoenix rising "from its own fiery ashes," and there are occasional editing errors. Even so, this warrants consideration for its basis in field research--something rare in series nonfiction--and for the true stories, which speak dramatically of struggling against water "moving at the same speed as a jet plane" and poignantly of human suffering and resilience. Sporadic photos and sidebars break up the text; end matter includes a time line, source citations for quotes, and an earnest author's note. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 11 and up
  
• Library Binding: 48 pages
• Publisher: Mitchell Lane Publishers (June 20, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158415344X
• ISBN-13: 978-1584153443
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,154,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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