Titanic Thoughts

  The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic
                               A Novel by Allan Wolf (Adult Fiction)

April, 2012 marks the anniversary of the 1912 sinking of the HMS Titanic. Amazingly, many of us are still fascinated with the people and events surrounding the disaster. Wolf imaginatively creates a novel in verse (reads like short chapters) that provides insights into passengers and experiences. Portions of the work would make a great readers' theatre for middle and high school students. At the end of the book, he includes "Miscellany" with statistics and trivia as well as a section with personal information about many of those who sailed. 


  The Dressmaker: A Novel by Kate Alcott. Doubleday, 2012.
                               (Adult Fiction) February, 2012 publication

A lot of fiction deals with the sinking itself, but few go into depth about the aftermath. Alcott presents an aspiring young woman named Tess Collins who wins a last minute spot on the Titanic as a maid to Lady Duff Gordon. Tess describes the passengers, the ship, and the lifeboat chaos. In the later hearings led by Senator Smith in New York and Washington, D.C., many of the survivors are called to testify. Tess is torn between loyalties to a handsome sailor, to a wealthy businessman, and to her employer. Not a gripping read, but this will be interesting to those who want more fiction about the ship.


* For another adult fiction choice, also see Houses blog entry for information on 2012 novel, The House of Velvet and Glass by Katherine Howe which has major characters on the ship.

 Voyagers of the Titanic: Passengers, Sailors, Shipbuilders,                 Aristocrats, and the Worlds They Came From by Richard Davenport-Hines. William Morrow, 2012. (Adult Nonfiction) March, 2012 publication date

The galley I read of this book left me wanting a copy of the real book with all the photographs! The author divides the chapters into On Land, At Sea, and Life and Death. The subdivisions include the different classes of passengers and the shipowners, shipbuilders, and sailors. One of the most interesting and controversial aspects of this title is the "Statement on Monetary Values" at the end which estimates calculations of 2012 values for 1912 dollar or sterling figures.

 

  All Stations! Distress!: April 15, 1912: The Day the Titanic Sank
                               By Don Brown (Nonfiction, Children's)

A different voice is that of Don Brown, the renowned children's author and illustrator, who has penned a picture book that introduces the tragedy for younger readers. I well remember how four fourth grade Hispanic boys breathlessly ran into my school library one day, each with a different book about the Titanic, and traded books at the circulation desk. As we talked, they looked stunned. "Miss," one said, "you mean this is REAL?"

   Dangerous Waters, An Adventure on Titanic by Gregory Mone.
                                   Roaring Brook Press, 2012. (Children's Historical Fiction)

A great adventure novel for 5th-8th graders, this story of twelve-year-old Patrick Waters who sneaks on the ship and comes to know Harry Widener. Patrick learns a great deal about Francis Bacon from Harry and this becomes an important plot point in the tale. Fast paced and action packed, the characters come alive. See if you agree that editors did not find a couple of grammatical errors though. Use of "Titanic" and not "the Titanic" is a little surprising and I found myself hanging up on treating the ship like a character rather than as just a setting. An unusual story with another viewpoint, the book also includes a timeline and an author's note with a photo and copy of a pivotal document that may motivate readers to do some research of their own.