Fahey, Kathleen. Titanic. 1st American printing. Milwaukee: Gareth Stevens Publishers. January, 2005. hardcover. A volume in the Disasters series. children’s book (Ages 9 to 12). isbn: 0836844998. scarcity: fairly common.

This is a short work that cuts right to the heart of the matter. There are just three chapters, the first called ‘Tragedy in the Atlantic’, the second ‘The Causes of the Disaster’, and the last ‘The Aftermath of the Disaster’. There is also a glossary, a brief bibliography of both books and web sites, and an index.

The book is illustrated on most pages, and includes sidebars highlighting a few survivor accounts or explaining a particular angle of the story, like The Captain’s Story and The Formation of Icebergs.

As with many books for young readers, there are a fair amount of errors. I don’t know why children’s books tend to have a much higher ratio of errors to text, but that does seem to be the case more often than not. The very first sentence in the book is wrong: “The people who built the Titanic said that it was unsinkable”. White Star never made that claim, it was the press of the time that said that. In all there are about 10 errors I consider significant, and that is in 25 pages of text.

Despite the mistakes, the book is an interesting read, and the author goes into some additional details children will find interesting, like the story of icebergs, and the role of the United States Coast Guard.

Because of the book’s brevity, I feel it would be more suitable for a younger crowd than the 9 to 12 age group that Amazon suggests.

With thanks to Dru Schillow for this one.