Historical Survival Stories

Shorty is a Haitian boy trapped in the rubble of a hospital when an earthquake shatters the world around him. Surrounded by lifeless bodies and growing desperately weak from lack of food and water, death seems imminent. Yet as Shorty waits for a rescue that may never come, he becomes aware of another presence, one reaching out to him across two hundred years of history.

It will soon be another cold winter in the Ukraine. But it's 1941, and things are different this year. Max, the devoted caretaker of an animal preserve, must learn to live with the Nazis who have overtaken this precious land. He must also learn to keep secrets - for there is a girl, Kalinka, who is hiding in the park.

As a five-year-old boy, Pao Lor joined thousands of Hmong who fled for their lives through the jungles of Laos in the aftermath of war. After a difficult and perilous journey that neither of his parents survived, he reached the safety of Thailand, but the young refugee boy’s challenges were only just beginning.

David Kherdian re-creates his mother's voice in telling the true story of a childhood interrupted by one of the most devastating holocausts of our century....Vernon Dumehjian Kherdian was born into a loving and prosperous family. Then, in the year 1915, the Turkish government began the systematic destruction of its Armenian population.

One bright spring morning in the woods of France, a soldier, blinded by the war, is found by a little girl named Coco, and her older sister Marcelle. In return for their kindness, the soldier tells the sisters marvelous tales, each story connected to the keepsake he carries in his pocket: a perfect, tiny, silver donkey.

In the heart of darkening Europe, amidst the looming war, "Vienna on Fire" by Don Gabor tells the riveting story of Greta Kolbe, an eighteen-year-old Jewish woman whose life was upended when German troops annexed Austria in 1938. Her peaceful existence is replaced by a nightmare of terror as she, along with Vienna's Jewish community, faces an ordeal of intimidation. Greta's journey of resilience begins as she flees Nazi Vienna to escape arrest for her resistance activities, embarking on a dangerous trek to Holland, with a spiteful ex-suitor and the Gestapo closely trailing her.

Newbery Medalist and New York Times bestselling author Lois Lowry transports listeners to an Iron Age world through the suspenseful dual narrative of a boy and girl both battling to survive. In an utterly one-of-a-kind blend of fiction and history, a master storyteller explores the mystery and life of the 2,000-year-old Windeby bog body.

A secret preview into the treacherous journey of a man thrown from a successful life in Silicon Valley into the dark asphyxiating prison of San Quentin, with murders, serial killers, rats, and COVID around every corner. This true story is told by an inmate who was inside, living and breathing in the system of incarceration for nearly two years. He paints a masterpiece of detail by challenging the stigma that prisoners are less than people, that law enforcement is superior, and that the system of incarceration in the United States is still functioning.

This is the story of one remarkable young woman's unimaginable journey through the rise of the Nazi regime, the Second World War, and the aftermath. Mania Lichtenstein’s dramatic story of survival is narrated by her granddaughter and her memories are interwoven with beautiful passages of poetry and personal reflection. Living Among the Dead reminds us of the beautiful communities that existed before WWII, the lives lost and those that lived on, and the importance to never forget these stories so that history does not repeat itself.

Eighteen-year-old Constance is not interested in marriage or in being a “young lady”. But for a young woman coming of age in the early 1800s, that’s just about all that’s available to her. When her parents arrange her a marriage with a man more than twice her age, she’s powerless to resist. Stance couldn’t possibly find her newfound husband less appealing, but what can she do? Here’s what: Four months into the marriage, she can slip out of their bed in the middle of the night, and she can put on his clothes.

Dieci anni dopo, in quel borgo ridotto a macerie, abitato solo dai tre ragazzi inselvatichiti da solitudine e priva-zioni, padre Julen de la Cruz fu catapultato lì senza un perché. Vent’anni prima, fu padre Cullighan, infatti, per via di quella tesi sull’imperatore Costantino, a chiedergli di fare ricerche. Padre Julen invece, partì missionario per l’Africa. Si scambiarono qualche lettera poi, una busta. Di là arrivava. Fuor del Vallo. Lo schizzo di un simbolo che conosceva bene.

It should be easy to step into the position her mother left for her, since everyone thought she died the day her kingdom was destroyed. But staying hidden - remaining 'nobody' - is simpler than accepting her dark past, enduring her harrowing fate, and claiming her broken crown. This series is a detailed world full of legends and myths given flesh, and a princess chosen to save them all.

This audiobook includes a collection of 12 stories and poems drawn from Davis Deen's Trinidadian background. The writing is warm and rich, rooted in and uttering from the Caribbean oral tradition.

The walls around Catherine Benedict were growing ever closer. She had to find a way out. A way to be free. To have an adventure of her own. She sees from the window in her chamber, the ships coming and going in the port. Perhaps she will find her chance.

Charlotte has spent her whole life fighting the British Empire, following in the footsteps of her parents and their group of rebels. But when her reunion with her mother laid bare horrible truths about the rebellion, Charlotte knew she had to escape. Now she is on the run, with no idea who the enemy is - or which of her compatriots is truly on her side.

In the deadly chaos of the First World War, one horse witnesses the reality of battle from both sides of the trenches. Bombarded by artillery, with bullets knocking riders from his back, Joey tells a powerful story of the truest friendships surviving in terrible times. One horse has the seen the best and the worst of humanity. The power of war and the beauty of peace. This is his story.

Avec un récit engageant et authentique de ses expériences en tant que prisonnier de guerre évadé, ce témoignage captivant détaille la vie et les luttes d'un pilote capturé en 1917 en Europe ravagée par la guerre. Le lieutenant John Ryan était impatient de voir l'action pendant la Première Guerre mondiale. Il a rejoint les couleurs britanniques par Canada. En tant que l'un des nombreux pilotes américains du Royal Flying Corps avant que les États-Unis n'entrent en guerre, il a gagné ses ailes et est devenu un as par des féroces batailles aériennes dans le ciel allemand.

June, 1941. Eleven-year-old Shmuel Sucha is startled awake by the sound of German planes over his hometown in western Ukraine. As the Nazi shadow begins to fall on their small Jewish community, Shmuel’s parents smuggle their son away to a local farm, just on the border of the surrounding forest.

Captain Bligh leaves London for Tahiti in charge of his crew on the Bounty. At sea he shows himself to be a brutal tyrant and cruel whilst enforcing discipline which includes flogging the men, cutting rations and over zealously working them too hard. On the return voyage, first mate Fletcher Christian, wonderfully played here by Orson Welles, leads the crew to mutiny and sets Bligh and his supporters adrift on a boat. What they did not count on is the Captain's return in this gripping tense drama.

Bitty is a canary whose courage more than makes up for his diminutive size. Of course, as a miner bird who detects deadly gas leaks in a West Virginia coal mine during the Depression, he is used to facing danger. Tired of perilous working conditions, he escapes and hops a coal train to the state capital to seek help in improving the plights of miners and their canaries.