True Rescue Stories

In True Rescue Stories, NY Times Bestselling author Michael Tougias uses humor, and edge-of-your-seat storytelling to teach young people about the writing process, by delving into his process behind writing suspenseful true histories of survival and rescue. Tougias presents the story of his books—published in versions for adults and middle readers—with the backdrop of dramatic photography. After telling the story, he engages students in a discussion of his research and writing process for the book and offers tips for their own projects. This program can focus on one or all of the books in his True Rescue series:

A Storm Too Soon: A True Story of Survival and A Remarkable Rescue

Seventy-foot waves batter a tattered life raft 250 miles out to sea in one of the world’s most dangerous places, the Gulf Stream. Hanging onto the raft are three men, a Canadian, a Brit, and their captain, JP DeLutz, a dual citizen of America and France. The waves repeatedly toss the men out of their tiny vessel, and JP, with 9 broken ribs, is hypothermic and on the verge of death. The captain, however, is a tough-minded character who survived a difficult boyhood. He now must rely on those same inner resources to outlast the storm. Meanwhile, four coast guardsmen battling hurricane force winds, head toward the crew in their Jayhawk helicopter, wondering if they themselves can survive their own rescue mission. 

In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

On July 30, 1945, the U.S.S. Indianapolis was torpedoed in the South Pacific by a Japanese submarine. An estimated 300 men were killed upon impact; close to 900 sailors were cast into the Pacific Ocean, where they remained undetected by the navy for nearly four days and nights. Battered by a savage sea, they struggled to stay alive, fighting off sharks, hypothermia, an hallucinations. By the time rescue arrived, all but 316 men had died. The captain's subsequent court-martial left many questions unanswered: How did the navy fail to realize the Indianapolis was missing? And how did these 316 men manage to survive against all odds? This was the worst disaster in U.S. Naval history.

Into The Blizzard: Heroism at Sea During the Great Blizzard of 1978

During the height of the blizzard of 1978, the pilot boat Can Do, set out from Gloucester, MA with five men onboard, to assist a lost Coast Guard boat and an oil tanker in a Mayday situation. Using dramatic photography slides, Tougias tells the story of what happened on that awful night when the seas were producing monstrous waves of 40 feet and the wind was screaming at 115 miles per hour. His book on the subject, Ten Hours Until Dawn will be released as a middle reader book by Henry Holt Publishing in 2018. The American Library Association selected the Adult version as “One of the Top Books of the Year.”