A Book By Lauren Tarshis

I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor    

Title and its relation with the content of the story

I survived to the Pearl Harbor bombing, the book is about the story of Danny a guy who made it, who survived the attacks.

Author’s purpose

I think the purpose of the author was to show us the bravery of the people at the time, how did they fight for their lives, but also how did they fear for them, it was a rough time, violence was all around it must have been really awful, and for me the author wanted us to see that.

Summary plot

At 11 years old, Danny Crane is making bad choices. Living in New York with his mom, he has started hanging around with a street thug named Earl Gasky and committing petty crimes. When Danny’s best friend, Finn, falls from a fire escape ladder and gets badly hurt, Mom decides she and Danny need to start a new life elsewhere. It’s 1941, and hospitals in Hawaii are hiring nurses. She and Danny move, but he is determined to sneak away and return to New York as soon as possible.

At their new home, Danny meets his 3-year-old Japanese neighbor, Aki. The boy has taken a baby boar from its mother, thinking it is a puppy. Danny frees the baby boar and saves Aki from serious injury by the angry mother. He returns Aki to his mother, Mrs. Sudo, who invites Danny to lunch. She shows Danny the book of airplanes her husband has sketched for Aki and tells him that his mother is “lucky to have a boy like you”. Danny is still plotting ways to get himself back to New York when Mrs. Sudo makes him realize just how much his mother needs him.

Early the next morning, Aki appears and tells Danny there are airplanes in the sky. He says none of them look like the ones his father drew. As the boys watch, bombs begin to fall. Mrs. Sudo arrives and recognizes these are Japanese planes. She starts to take the boys to a bomb shelter, but Danny runs off to find his mother at the military hospital. On his way, he meets Mack, an officer who is interested in Mom.

Danny and Mack run and dodge the bombs and gunfire of enemy planes. They can see the battleships in the harbor are on fire. They’re also seeing and hearing about many deaths and injuries as they head toward Mom’s hospital. Mack shields Danny with his own body, and Mack sustains a serious, bloody injury.

Since there are no available ambulances, Danny hotwires a car like Earl taught him. He drives Mack and other injured men to the hospital. There, he finds his mother. She is alive and helping treat the injured. As Danny watches her work, he realizes how glad he is to be with her. He knows he is no longer the sort of boy who would abandon her and go back to New York.

A few days after the bombings, Danny learns Aki’s father has been arrested. Police found his sketches of American airplanes and accused him of helping the Japanese. Danny sends a telegram to Earl to see if he can help get Mr. Sudo released. Danny never learns whether it was Earl’s doing, but Mr. Sudo is eventually set free.

In the aftermath of the bombings, Danny realizes that he now fears many things. He’s pleased, however, that Mack often visits for dinner and that Mr. Sudo is teaching him to draw. He’s disappointed that Mack, now nearly healed, will be leaving to do bombing missions. One night, Danny sees the baby boar in his yard again. He can tell the mother is no longer around and he fears the animal may have lost its family during the bombings. He takes the baby to Aki as a Christmas gift.
https://www.pluggedin.com/book-reviews/i-survived-the-bombing-of-pearl-harbor-1941/

Themes

Bravery

Characters

Danny

Danny’s mom

Mack

Aki

Mrs. Sudo

Danny’s friends in New York

Conflict

When the attack happened and everyone was really shock, and Mrs. Sudo took Aki and Danny to the bomb shelter, but Danny went looking for his mom, something that worries everyone.

Climax

It was when Mack and Danny met in his way to look for his mom, and a bomb hit them but Mack protected Danny with his body, Mack got a pretty bad injury in his body along with a man who was nearby. Danny drove them to the hospital.

Resolution

Danny found his mom at the hospital and he was finally happy, he discovered that he wasn’t that same kid he was back then in New York, that now he was brave, and he did not want to get back to New York, he didn’t want to abandon his mother. They were all saved now.

Point of view

For me it was a great story that teaches us on an important event in history that everyone should know about, I also liked that with this story we could learn about how was life at that time and how rough it was to live like that, in a time of violence. “America was under attack! Hundreds of bomber planes were swarming over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.” Not only America was under attack but also the lives of innocents who deserved better.

Concluding paragraph

In this excellent I Survived title we see what it might have been like to be in Pearl Harbor when it was bombed in 1941 through the eyes of a young boy. We see how Danny is changed by the experience, and how he learns to have a new appreciation for the life that he has.

This is a retold collection 

by María José Reyes, 

Step 8 Yellow.