Titanic [Hardcover]

Ken Geist (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2007 | Age Level: 9 and up

TITANIC offers readers fabulous new insight into what it was really like aboard the majestic boat with photographs, letters, journal entries, and tons of novelty features!

This gorgeous volume brings history to life as readers follow a young boy's passage on the Titanic. Through his journals and loads of incredible novelty features, readers will get a unique inside look at the impressive luxury ship and her maiden voyage. Novelty features include: pop-ups, pull tabs, slide mechanisms, fold-out maps, and booklets for additional Titanic information. TITANIC offers readers fabulous new insight into what it was really like aboard the luxury boat with photographs, letters, and journal entries.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4–6—Once past the glitzy cover—silver foil, with an imbedded lenticular image—the quality of this pop-up account of the disaster takes a serious dive. Crosbie relates background information and the voyage's events with a trite combination of sound-bite captions surrounding a fictive young survivor's journal entries, all supported by several foldout sheets or booklets printed in a tiny, marginally legible typeface. The often-fragile movable effects range from ho-hum to, in the case of a circular view of the Atlantic Ocean and coastlines that pivots around its center, downright surreal. The design is so slipshod that the unfinished art beneath the pop-up collision scene is plainly visible. For no evident reason, a number of the painted illustrations are printed on separate pieces, then glued to the page. A final spread on the wreck's present and future isn't enough to keep this offering afloat, especially considering the plethora of better treatments; Ken Marschall's Inside the Titanic: A Giant Cut-away Book (Little, Brown, 1997), for instance, is both more informative and has a higher "wow" factor.—John Peters, New York Public Library
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From Booklist

James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster may be but a speck on the iceberg-studded horizon, but children's macabre fascination with the Titanic saga endures. This latest title on the tragedy is done up in the oversize, feature-loaded fashion popularized by Candlewick's Dragonology (2003) and others. Based on the packaging—copious silver foil and a portal framing an image that changes with the book's angle—one might assume it to be the most lavish such book yet. In practice, though, the flaps, booklets, and other extras feel a bit uninspired, even illogically applied (at one point, a map of the globe swivels around the wrong axis). But a dimensional, stem-to-stern portrait of the steamship will impress readers, and the content is solid enough, delivered through a combination of historical sidebars and fictional journal entries that chart the experiences of a boy passenger who loses two family members in the disaster. Illustrations include original watercolors and archival images. Purchase this for the book's outward splendor and the seemingly depthless demand for material on the topic. Mattson, Jennifer

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 30 pages
• Publisher: Orchard Books (April 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439899958
• ISBN-13: 978-0439899956
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 11.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #463,259 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars enchanting, July 27, 2007

By 

D. R. Gedenberg (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Titanic (Hardcover)

This version of Titanic is by far the most graphic and fact ridden of the many books I have read about the magnificent ship. It amazes children ages 5-100! It is the kind of book that doesn't have to be read in one sitting, but keeps pulling me back to its pages.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK pop-up book, more geared for children IMHO, July 28, 2009

By 

Shasta's D (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Titanic (Hardcover)

This pop-up book is generous on number of pages for a pop up (30, or 15 spreads, excluding the page that covers current photos along with publisher info). It has a great ship pop-up in the center of the book and a nice one of the grand staircase, but, other than that, it is a bit lacking.

The book pairs factoids with a fictional storyline of a 12-year-old boy's account of events. I have to fault the story b/c the British boy speaks American English (couldn't they have just used "Mum") and it sounds more like an adult trying to write as a child. That said, I think the story would help a child reader relate to the history. The facts are interesting enough.

The quality of the art work, pop ups, and accompanying ephemera varies vastly. The "centerfold" of the Titanic popping out raised and wider than the width of the book is impressive (be careful folding it back up). Elsewhere, there was a lack of imagination though. There are items completely affixed to the pages that make you think they should do something. There are other items that do function as flip the flaps but the artwork underneath is exactly the same; these usually provide some factoid on the back of the flap. There are several promising-looking booklets, but, when you open them, they contain facts presented in text much like that printed on the book's main pages rather than continuing the theme of the booklets' covers. The book almost seems to run out of time as you get to the inside back cover and find photos of the wreck on the sea floor and an account of how quickly the ship is deteriorating. This is shoved in with the publishing info, whereas it could have been given a few pages.

While I did find this book disappointing, I did buy it. It is sad that they put so much effort in creating a book with great promise but fell short.

It will please some pop-up collectors. It will be interesting as a quick, entertaining read for an adult with a casual interest. It should be of interest to a child; perhaps the tip of the iceberg ;) in learning about this historic event.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, December 26, 2007

By 

H. OLMSTEAD (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Titanic (Hardcover)

Excellent quality book. Great Price, I bought this for my eight-year old nephew and he loved it. The information inside is wonderful and the pop-up of the ship as well as other items are really cool. Great book.