Customer Reviews

The Edmund Fitzgerald: Song of the Bell

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Knowledgeably written by Kathy-Jo Wargin and expertly illustrated by Gisjbert Van Frankenhuyzen, The Edmund Fitzgerald: The Song Of The Bell is the suspenseful picture book retelling of the doomed voyage of a ship and the tragic end for the 29 men aboard it. Told with compassion and historical accuracy, this true story concludes with the retrieval of the ship's bell from the ocean depths and the placing of it in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point, Michigan, so that the loved ones of those who died with the sinking of that great ship could have a place to go and remember their cherished memories of those who were lost.

"The 'Edmund Fitzgerald' Song of the Bell" by Kathy-Jo Wargin is a rather unusual entry in the vast array of books on the sinking of the "Edmund Fitzgerald." It is a generally accurate account of the November 1975 accident that claimed the lives of 29 sailors on Lake Superior, but what distinguishes this book is that it's specifically aimed at children and is beautifully illustrated with paintings by Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen.

The text is largely in well-written prose, though the "Song of the Bell" angle, despite making it into the title, is a bit unwieldy. Essentially the story is told in prose with intermittent couplets sprinkled throughout which serve to tell the story a second time poetically (e.g. "The battered bell rang as the storm held its grip / It rang for the men as the heart of the ship.") I think it would have worked better to feature the poem on a single page as an introduction rather than distributing it throughout the book in italics, as the net effect is to make the text seem a bit disjointed.

Despite the stylistic issues, I think the book works very effectively as a children's introduction to the sinking of the "Fitzgerald," and the paintings are truly excellent, especially for a book with this intended audience. For those with children interested in dramatic stories, ships, The Great Lakes, maritime tragedies, or ore processing and transportation this is an excellent choice.

My 6 year old son got this book for Christmas and absolutely loves it! He's asked me to read it to him almost every day. We live on Lake Superior so he's been fascinated with the story of the Fitzgerald and other sunken ships in the great lakes.

This book traces the fateful trip of iron ore cargo, across the Great Lakes, to Detroit and its auto manufacture. The EDMUND FITZGERALD is scheduled to go across the deepest part of Lake Superior. Storms are known to develop, but are ignored by the crew.

A big storm develops. The navigation systems break down. Unlike the Gordon Lightfoot song, the captain never wires in that he has water coming in. Instead, the ballast holders start filling with water. The ship lists to one side, and is low in the water--as observed by another ship. Then the EDMUND FITZGERALD disappears from sight. Years later, her twisted wreckage is found on the lake bottom. The bell is cut off by divers, and brought to the surface.

An engaging true story!

The book itself is in like new condition. The story is beautiful and the illustrations as well. It will be part of my classroom library to share history, especially Michigan, with grade school students.

I bought this book as a gift for my 10yr old son.He loves learning about the sunken ship.The Great Lakes are apart of where he comes from so therefore I belive give a child all the info you can.