The book is 304 pages/ 1040 Lexile Level and includes an abundance of primary sources from the era of the ship’s sinking. It was published in 2012 originally and a new edition came out in 2014. I chose the book because it is a work of narrative non-fiction. Archival photographs, a timeline, a selected list of facts, short biographies of those mentioned, excerpts from selected survivor letters, a glossary, and an unseen index complete this fine book.įrom the March/April 2012 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.Last year, I read Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson with my 7th Grade Book Club.
For interested readers who want to read in more detail, Hopkinson includes comprehensive chapter notes, a listing of sources, and questions to get young people started on their own Titanic quests. In this admirably restrained account, Hopkinson covers, but doesn’t dwell upon, the foreshadowing of iceberg reports, the heartbreaking choices in boarding the (too few) lifeboats, and the agony of those dying in the freezing water. She includes crew members as well as those traveling in first, second, and third class, showing both the contrasts between them as the voyage begins and the horror that binds them by night’s end. Hopkinson also introduces her “characters,” real survivors whose voices relay many of the subsequent events. She begins her account as the ship embarks on its maiden voyage and, once it sets sail, flashes back to cover its construction and grandeur as well as some of the crew’s responsibilities, which play major roles in the sinking of the ship and the rescue of the passengers. Hopkinson knows precisely what’s she doing in her coverage of the Titanic disaster: providing young readers with a basic introduction to the event without overdramatizing, drawing unwarranted conclusions, or prolonging the ordeal.
Intermediate, Middle School Scholastic 290 pp.
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