Remembering the Titanic
by Frieda Wishinsky
Multiple Illustrators
Published by Scholastic Inc. 2012
31 Pages
Informational Book
One of history's most well-known voyages across the ocean is the Titanic. The unsinkable, floating palace set sail on April 10th, 1912 from Southampton, England to New York City. This ship weighed in at 52,310 tons, had nine decks, and was larger than a fifteen-story building. You can only imagine the excitement of the passengers who were privileged enough to travel on her first voyage. For most people, this was their only hope at starting over and living the life they had always dreamed of. Unfortunately, this dream did not come true for nearly 1,500 of the passengers on board, and the rest are scarred for life with the horrible memories.
There is a team of people whom contributed to the illustrations in Remembering the Titanic. The majority of the book consists of real photos which were hand selected, by the group of illustrators, of the "Unsinkable Ship". Some of the pictures were from the original voyage and others are from the box office hit Titanic, the movie. On page 18, the team of illustrators did include a painting which captured the horrific scene of people fighting for their life as they drifted away in the life boats. The images really add a lot of emotion to the text. They allow the reader to visualize each moment as the "Floating Palace" split in two and sank to the bottom of the ocean.
The back of this informational text contains a lot of useful information for educators. The book has been labeled appropriate for first to third grade reading levels and consists of 700-1500 words. The growing readers would greatly benefit from studying the text features throughout this work. The teacher could model the purpose of each feature and show how it contributes to the text. The teacher may also consider having a mini lesson on how to properly use the glossary found in the back of the book. Students tend to over look this beneficial resource. One final activity teachers may be interested in using Remembering the Titanic for would be a KWL chart. This would be the perfect way to ensure that students are engaged before, during, and after the read aloud.
There is a team of people whom contributed to the illustrations in Remembering the Titanic. The majority of the book consists of real photos which were hand selected, by the group of illustrators, of the "Unsinkable Ship". Some of the pictures were from the original voyage and others are from the box office hit Titanic, the movie. On page 18, the team of illustrators did include a painting which captured the horrific scene of people fighting for their life as they drifted away in the life boats. The images really add a lot of emotion to the text. They allow the reader to visualize each moment as the "Floating Palace" split in two and sank to the bottom of the ocean.The back of this informational text contains a lot of useful information for educators. The book has been labeled appropriate for first to third grade reading levels and consists of 700-1500 words. The growing readers would greatly benefit from studying the text features throughout this work. The teacher could model the purpose of each feature and show how it contributes to the text. The teacher may also consider having a mini lesson on how to properly use the glossary found in the back of the book. Students tend to over look this beneficial resource. One final activity teachers may be interested in using Remembering the Titanic for would be a KWL chart. This would be the perfect way to ensure that students are engaged before, during, and after the read aloud.
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