CM Magazine: Remembering the Titanic. (Scholastic Reader Level 3).

________________ CM . . . . Volume XVIII Number 32 . . . . April 20, 2012

cover
Remembering the Titanic. (Scholastic Reader Level 3).

Frieda Wishinsky.
New York, NY: Scholastic (Distributed in Canada by Scholastic Canada), 2012.
32 pp., pbk., $4.99.
ISBN 978-0-545-35844-6.

Grades 1-3 / Ages 6-8.

Review by Robert Groberman.

*** /4

excerpt:

The compartments that were supposed to hold back water failed. And worst of all, there weren't enough lifeboats for everyone aboard. The law of the sea in those days didn't require any more than 16 lifeboats. That was only enough for a little over half of the passengers.

In her new fact-based account of the Titanic disaster, Frieda Wishinsky speaks with the voice of an author who is very aware of her young audience whose members may have not previous knowledge of a story that is so well known to older readers. Though Wishinsky’s using comparative language to describe the size of the ship as "bigger than a fifteen story building!" and explaining the differences between first, second and third classes, we immediately understand that this was not the kind of travel that we know today. Wishinsky’s use of excellent period pictures also helps young readers to appreciate the facts she relates about the size and luxury of the Titanic. Where photographs of the sinking, itself, do not exist, Wishinsky uses a graphic from the movie Titanic to illustrate the rush to the lifeboats and likely confusion that occurred at that place.

In addition to relating the story of the sinking of the ship, author Wishinsky relates and illustrates with photos and drawings the rescue of survivors. She than tells readers about the modern expeditions by Robert Ballard to find the wreck of the Titanic with photos of what he found. Final pages introduce readers to the final living survivor of the ship and to movie posters for the two most famous motion picture accounts of the story.

This book will easily explain to young readers a story that is now 100 years old. Those who are interested will find that the pieces of the story they may have heard about will fit together to make a coherent story. Readers new to the story will receive a full retelling.

Recommended.

Robert Groberman is a grade two teacher at Kirkbride Elementary School in Surrey, BC.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

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Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364 Hosted by the University of Manitoba.

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