Titanic: Death On The Water
Publication: 15th April 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury Australia
Pages: 127
Genre: History
Age Appropriate: Middle-Grade +
Fascinating fictional retelling of the events that led to the tragedy of the Titanic, based on documents from the National Archives.
A boy works in the dockyard where the Titanic
is being built, then gets a job on the ship. As he witnesses a series
of mistakes, short-cuts and bad decisions, he becomes more and more
worried about what could happen. But he’s preoccupied by his rivalry
with a fellow ship’s boy and doesn’t realise the full scale of what’s happening until it’s too late..
My Thoughts.
As I've said before and to anyone who knows me I love anything to do with the Titanic, I don't know why it fascinates me so much but it does, and so whenever I see a new book or receive one for review, well let's just say I get a little excited.
I can honestly say that in all the books I've read I have never read a fictional account of the tragedy and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it.
Billy is fourteen and through the encouragement of his father becomes an apprentice in ship building working alongside his father in the construction of the biggest ship the world has ever known the Titanic.
Tragically Billy father is killed while building the ship and he is now the man of the house supporting his mother and sisters, but Billy is scared and he doesn't want to help build the ship anymore instead he hears that they are hiring people to work on the ship when she sets sail so Billy goes for an interview and gets a job as a bellboy.
Straight away he gets off on the wrong foot with a fellow bellboy George and it doesn't help that he's favoured by the Mr McElroy the Purser who's job it is to keep them in line or that he becomes Bruce Ismay's personal help.
He becomes friends with a Polish woman and her three children especially the youngest Anya who has a habit of running away and hiding in the ship and Billy is the one that always finds her, then after the ship has hit the iceberg he finds out that Anya is missing again and the ship has started flooding, can he find her in time? and if so will he survive?.
Of course we all know how this ends and I love the way that the facts that are known of that fateful night are woven through this fictional story that seems like Billy actually was there relating the story of that night.
A haunting and adventurous tale that's based in fact of the biggest and most famous shipwreck in history, a tragedy that fascinates people to this day.
I give this 4/5.
A Big Thanks To Sonia @ Bloomsbury Australia.
It kills me that this happened, the Titanic I mean. So many people died. Still it remains one of my favorite historical events!
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