Home > Categories > Books > Young Adult > I Survived: The Sinking of the Titanic, 1912 review
The most terrifying events in history are brought vividly to life in this new fictional series! In book 1, ten-year-old George is trapped on the Titanic -- how will he survive?
Ten-year-old George Calder can't believe his luck -- he and his little sister, Phoebe, are on the famous Titanic, crossing the ocean with their Aunt Daisy. The ship is full of exciting places to explore, but when George ventures into the first class storage cabin, a terrible boom shakes the entire boat. Suddenly, water is everywhere, and George's life changes forever.
Lauren Tarshis brings history's most exciting and terrifying events to life in this new fictional series. Readers will be transported by stories of amazing kids and how they survived!
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Reading this book was like revisiting James Camerons Titanic. So many similarities, including George being told there are not enough lifeboats for everyone and also being placed on a Door after the ship went down. The only real differences were Jack and Rose were nowhere to be seen and this story partly suggested a cursed Mummy could be the reason for the sinking of the unsinkable ship (later became discredited). Although, one thing not mentioned in the movie was a hidden escape ladder that ran up the starboard side of the ship, up two decks through the stoker's quarters and into the crews dining lounge. I am not sure if this is actually factual or not as I have never heard of them before.
The story is a historical fiction. Yes the Titanic sunk but the characters involved where purely made up. It has a nice pace and is a very quick read. It tells how the lower decks where locked and how the first class passengers where treated as the ship started to sink. It doesn't dwell too much about how the passengers died but instead talks about Georges ordeal and how he miraculously survived when the odds where stacked pretty high against him.
I like after the story has finished, you are told the real story and who the characters where based on. It tells you of Laurens research and what books she used to get the information. It then breaks it down even further and gives you the true facts about the titanic including out of the 2,229 souls aboard the ship, 1,316 were passengers and 913 were crew. Only 498 passengers survived and 215 members of the crew which is very scary statistics. Having worked for a cruise ship in the past I know that there are more then adequate life boats available and every new cruise we had to have a life boat drill so no one should ever have to loose their life again at sea.
It is so sad to think that more people could of been saved if they had filled the life boats up more and not worried about saving their luggage or dogs. The class system was very flawed and a lot of people paid a very high price for it. A nice read for preteens that want to learn about our history.
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