'I Survived' author Lauren Tarshis brings history to life for Highlands students

Students at Highlands Middle School listened intently Thursday as bestselling author Lauren Tarshis shared a story that, in many ways, felt just as gripping as the ones in her books.

Ms. Tarshis, whose popular "I Survived" books bring major moments in history to life through the eyes of young protagonists, has written about events such as the attacks of 9/11, the Titanic disaster, Hurricane Katrina and World War II, combining fast-paced storytelling with real historical details that leave students around the globe spellbound.

On Thursday, a large group of eight-graders listened raptly in the auditorium as she told them about how she survived her own scary ordeal: self-doubt. 

“I just finished my 26th ‘I Survived’ book,” said Ms. Tarshis, a longtime editor at Scholastic whose books have been translated into multiple languages. “But every time I come to speak, I still get nervous. My heart pounds, and I think, ‘Is this real?’”

For the Highlands students, seeing the prolific author standing before them and admitting she still feels uncertain at times was a powerful moment. And then she told them something even more surprising. If you had asked her classmates years ago which student would grow up to be an author, she said, most would not have chosen her.

Ms. Tarshis took students back to her own middle school years, describing herself not as a confident future writer, but as a child quietly struggling. “I couldn’t read a book,” she said. “I could sound out the words, but they didn’t make sense to me. I didn’t understand what was happening.”

Ashamed and unsure how to ask for help, she hid her difficulties. She relied on friends to retell stories so she could complete assignments, all while believing something was wrong with her.

“I thought, ‘I’m not smart,’” she said.

It wasn’t until high school — sitting on her bed with a notebook in her lap as she tried to read "A Tale of Two Cities" — that everything began to change. Slowly, paragraph by paragraph, she developed her own strategy by writing notes to piece together meaning.

“For the first time, I understood a book,” she said.

That breakthrough didn’t come easily and it didn’t come quickly, but it changed everything.

For many Highlands students, her honesty struck a chord.

 “I read ‘I Survived 9/11’ and I think she’s a very good writer,” said eighth-grader Serena Lambert-Johns. “She makes reading fun. I don’t enjoy reading, but when she writes the books, I like it.”

Serena said the author gave her a deeper appreciation for books.

“She can tell us why she writes them,” she added. “I’d like to know when she started writing and why.”

Fellow student Mia Mondragon said she enjoys how Ms. Tarshis brings history to life.

“I like her books because they explain and tell you about events that have happened,” Mia said. “I like learning about events and history.”

Ms. Tarshis explained that each book in the series is built on extensive research, often taking a full year to complete. While the characters are fictional, the events are real. She travels, studies firsthand accounts, and meets people connected to the events she writes about.

“I meet people who lived through these moments,” she said. “And what I see again and again is that even in the hardest times, people find ways to help each other and rebuild.”

That, she said, is at the heart of her work.

Despite writing about tragedies, she has become more hopeful over time.

“People go through very difficult experiences,” she said, “but they don’t just survive — they help others, and they rebuild.”

Perhaps the most important message she shared had nothing to do with writing technique or publishing success. It was about possibility.

As a child, she once heard an author say she had always known she would become a writer because she had a special “gift.” That idea stayed with Ms. Tarshis and discouraged her.

“I thought, ‘I don’t have a gift,’” she said and then offered a different perspective.

“You do not have to know what you’re going to be,” she told them. “You don’t have to have it all figured out in the eighth grade.”