A New York Times Bestseller • From the Emmy-Award winning host of Survivor , Jeff Probst, with Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life co-author, Chris Tebbetts, comes an adventure series where a family vacation becomes a game of survival! It was supposed to be a vacation--and a chance to get to know each other better. But when a massive storm sets in without warning, four kids are shipwrecked alone on a rocky jungle island in the middle of the South Pacific. No adults. No instructions. Nobody to rely on but themselves. Can they make it home alive? A week ago, the biggest challenge Vanessa, Buzz, Carter, and Jane had was learning to live as a new blended family. Now the four siblings must find a way to work as a team if they're going to make it off the island. They're all in this adventure together--but first they've got to learn to survive one another.   As seen on The Today Show, Rachael Ray, and Kelly and Michael. Books in the original Stranded series : Stranded (Book 1) Trial By Fire (Book 2) Survivors (Book 3) Books in the Stranded, Shadow Island series Forbidden Passage (Book 4) Sabotage (Book 5) Desperate Measures (Book 6)   Gr 4-7-In this exciting survival novel, four kids from a recently blended family are sent sailing to get to know one another better. When a sudden storm front moves in, the boat runs into a rocky shoal and starts taking on water. The children's uncle, the captain, prepares a life raft with his first mate, but the two of them and the raft disappear before the kids can get on. The ship runs aground on an unknown island. Now stranded in the South Pacific, the children must find a way to contact the coast guard and survive. During their adventure, they learn to cross deadly cliffs, go spelunking, and try to keep from being swept out to sea in raging water. The nautical terms and descriptions with little contextual clues are confusing for the first part of the book, but once the children get stranded on the island, the story begins to move at an exceedingly fast and exciting pace. While the plot delivers, the character development is lacking. The youngsters represent different stereotypes and rarely step outside their roles: the thinker, the technology guru, the stubborn athlete, and the problem-solving geek with untapped leadership potential. Readers should be able to identify with at least one character, but the lack of dynamic growth limits the audience to fans of adventure/survival books.-Devin Burritt, Wells Public Library, MEα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. In this first entry to a new adventure series coauthored by Survivor host Probst, four kids are supposed to bond on a sailing trip as part of a newly blended family (Carter and Jane’s mother has married Vanessa and Buzz’s father). Instead, they end up on their own in the middle of the Pacific. Probst and Tebbetts (coauthor of James Patterson’s Middle School books) begin with a bang in the form of thunder as a storm builds and the two adults on the Lucky Star get blown away on the only lifeboat. The kid characters are not indelibly drawn, but their difficulties—on the boat and then on an island without water or an easy way to communicate with the outside world—are diverting. At book’s end, the boat’s wreckage—and the kids’ only shelter—has been pulled back into the ocean by the current. With only a few minutes to take supplies from the boat before getting to safety, the kids will no doubt be hunting the island’s resources in the series’ next installment. Grades 3-5, --Abby Nolan A New York Times Bestseller! As seen on "The Today Show," "Rachael Ray, " and" Kelly and Michael." ""Stranded "is non-stop adventure! If your kids love "Survivor," they'll love this book!" --Mark Burnett, Executive Producer of "Survivor," "The""Voice," "Shark Tank," and "Celebrity Apprentice " "An epic adventure for that young adventurer in us all!" --Bear Grylls, host of Discovery's "Man vs Wild, " NBC's "Get Out Alive "and #1 bestselling author A New York Times Bestseller! As seen on "The Today Show", "Rachael Ray, " and" Kelly and Michael." ""Stranded "is non-stop adventure! If your kids love "Survivor", they'll love this book!" --Mark Burnett, Executive Producer of "Survivor", "The""Voice", "Shark Tank", and "Celebrity Apprentice " "An epic adventure for that young adventurer in us all!" --Bear Grylls, host of Discovery's "Man vs Wild, " NBC's "Get Out Alive "and #1 bestselling author ""Stranded "is non-stop adventure! If your kids love "Survivor", they'll love this book!" --Mark Burnett, Executive Producer of "Survivor", "The""Voice", "Shark Tank", and "Celebrity Apprentice " "An epic adventure for that young adventurer in us all!" --Bear Grylls, host of Discovery's "Man vs Wild, " NBC's "Get Out Alive "and #1 bestselling author Jeff Probst is the multi-Emmy award winning host and executive producer of the popular se