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Marty Crisp.
Crisp, Marty. White Star. A Dog on the Titanic. 1st printing. New York: Holiday House. April, 2004. hardcover. children’s book (ages 8-12). isbn: 0823415988. scarcity: fairly common.

White Star is a children’s book that tells the story of a fictional Irish Setter who joins the dozen or so dogs that really were on Titanic. Marty Crisp has written quite a number of books for young readers, many of them with dogs as the heroes. White Star continues in that vein, blending the real story of the Titanic disaster with her fictional account of a twelve year old, first class passenger named Sam, a dog lover who volunteers to help with the dogs in Titanic’s kennel.

There he meets the young setter, whom he names Star. The two of them quickly become fast friends, even though Star is actually owned by White Star Line president J. Bruce Ismay. Sam and Star become inseparable, and have several amusing adventures as Titanic steams unknowingly towards her dark destiny. Sam manages to meet most of the other passengers who are also traveling with their dogs, and we get introduced to many of the dogs who really were on board.

When disaster strikes, Sam’s only thought is rescuing Star from the kennels. This he does, and Star returns the favor by leading the boy off the ship, eventually to be picked up by one of the lifeboats already in the water. The men in the boat try to save Sam, but refuse to let Star into the boat. Sam rebels and an argument ensues until one of the first class passengers demands that both boy and dog be taken aboard.

So both end up being saved and make it safely onto the rescue ship Carpathia, eventually returning to New York. After having gone through so much together, the bond between the two is immense. But Sam knows that Star really belongs to Mr. Ismay, and he has to make the most difficult decision of all, to return Star to his rightful owner.

Crisp does a very good job of interweaving her fictional characters with the people and dogs who really were aboard the ship. She did her homework, and most of the information about the real people and their pets is right on the money.

The author rounds out the book with a map showing Titanic’s voyage, a cutaway of the ship showing all the decks, and a timeline of what happened on the maiden voyage. There follows a section describing some of the more famous mysteries about the voyage, and brief bios of some of the passengers. A few minor blunders make it into this part of the book, including the one single mistake that just won’t die; namely that the first time SOS was used was during the Titanic disaster.

I don’t know why this error keeps finding its way into book after book, but it does, and it is just plain wrong. SOS was first used years before Titanic, most famously in 1909 when it resulted in the rescue of most of the passengers and crew of the Republic, after that ship was rammed by the Florida.

The book finishes with not just one, but two bibliographies for further reading, one for younger readers, and one for adults. All in all this is a charming and moving book, well told and mostly accurate. One word of caution, if your child is unusually empathic, you might want to read this yourself before you let them read it. Crisp doesn’t sugar coat the tragedy, and several of the dogs you meet during the story do die. Aside from that, if you love a good dog story, this one is top rate.

With thanks to Fiona Nitschke for letting me know about this book..

For further details about this book see Marty Crisp's website.


Crisp, Marty. White Star, A Dog on the Titanic. reprint. New York: Scholastic, Inc.. October, 2005. wraps. children’s book (ages 8-12). isbn: 0439712653. scarcity: hard to find.

A paperback reprint.