Kevin Blake: 9 books

In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey slammed Houston. The city’s reservoirs and sewers quickly overflowed, creating massive flooding. The mega storm dumped more rain on Texas than any other storm in U.S. history. Millions of Texans were left in grave danger. This book tells their harrowing stories of...

On May 31, 1911, thousands of excited people crammed into a shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland. They were there to watch the empty hull of RMS Titanic enter the water for the very first time. Proud workers hugged their children as they pointed at the massive ship they had helped build. In just...

It was February 1925 in the Alaskan wilderness. One wrong step could mean sudden death for musher Gunnar Kaasen and his lead sled dog, Balto. The temperature had dropped to -50°F. Fierce winds roared as snow pounded the sled. The blinding blizzard made it impossible to see. Waiting for the weather...

In 1963, Les Skramstad came home after a hard day’s work at the local mill and mine in Libby, Montana. His wife kissed him at the door and his kids playfully grabbed his legs. They didn’t mind that he was covered in powdery brown dust. Little did Les and his family know that the dust was deadly....

In 1957 at the Field Museum in Chicago, Dr. Karl Schmidt, a famous herpetologist, was examining a small green-and-black boomslang snake. In less than a second, the snake sank its small, rear-facing fangs into Karl’s thumb. At the time, Karl and other scientists didn’t believe the boomslang’s...

“Iceberg right ahead!” yelled Frederick Fleet, a crewmember aboard the Titanic. The ship had only seconds to spare. Titanic’s officers steered the ship to the left as quickly as they could to avoid a head-on collision. But they weren’t fast enough. The right side of the ship struck the side...

Fiona Donagh was asleep in her bed in New South Wales, Australia, when she felt something crawling up her body. She shook her leg, which turned out to be a big mistake. A frightened Australian funnel web spider plunged its fangs into her body, injecting her with toxic venom. Fiona developed a bright...

On a summer night in 2014, Clare Whiteford and her three young sons were asleep in their home. Without warning, a fire broke out in their kitchen. Everyone in the family was unaware of the danger—everyone except their adopted greyhound, Uno. The dog raced upstairs to Clare’s bedroom and barked...

Deep in the jungles of Thailand, Gareth Pike awoke one sunny morning in 2007. As he was getting dressed, he reached down to grab a pair of shorts off his floor. Suddenly, Gareth felt a horrible stinging pain in his thumb. Then he spotted a deadly black scorpion scurrying away. “I was in dreadful...