“I Survived”: A geographical analysis of children’s books and historic disaster events

Abstract

Climate change driving the intensifying magnitudes and frequencies of catastrophic events combined with growing population mean children around the world are now routinely encountering disasters in their daily lives. Yet there are minimal resources about preparing for and recovering from these traumatic experiences aimed at children. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we observed an increase in children’s fiction books centered around real-world experiences of the global crisis. These books served to entertain, improve mental health, and help explain complex issues, like stay-at-home orders, to young children. One such series, Lauren Tarshis’s “I Survived” YA book series, is told from the perspective of children living through historic and recent disaster events such as the 1964 Alaska Earthquake or the 2018 California Wildfires; this series explores causes of disaster, their impacts, immediate response and elements of recovery, and the importance of resilience. To better understand how fictionalized stories portray information about disaster preparedness, recovery strategies, and geographic literacy to children, we implement a content analysis and inductive coding and evaluate how these books convey such concepts through storytelling.