Shackleton's Stowaway

Great book i lived every minute of it and couldn't wait to keep reading.

Great action adventure for pre-teens and teens

Good story. Youth appropriate.

Shake%0A

Woooooo

shackleton's stowaway

In this book Shackleton's plan was to cross Antarctica with dogsleds, but they never reached land. Instead, the adventure turned into a two-year battle for survival. As the ship neared the frozen continent, it made slow progress through the "ice pack," giant ice floes with very little space between them. Then the sea simply froze solid, and the Endurance was stuck for months. When the ice pack thawed and the floes started moving, their danger greatly increased. Soon the ship was crushed between two floes and had to be abandoned. They survived a harrowing journey in lifeboats across the icy sea, finally arriving at a small, rocky island. Their food supplies nearly gone, they survived on whatever seals and penguins they could find. Shackleton and a few other men set out in one of the lifeboats for another island 800 miles away where they hoped to get help. Now everyone needed the endurance that had been the name of their ship. The author, Victoria McKernan, turned this true story into a novel after careful research into the diaries of the ship's crew and books about the expedition. She shares the details of the ordeal, like the taste of seal meat, Perce's encounter with a killer whale, and the agonizing pain of his frost-bitten toes. I felt sad, and it made me wonder how do some people find the courage and stamina to survive the cold weather like that.

The story that never ends

This book is an amazing book about hard times that men sailing had to over come. Even though penguins and seals were their only hope for life, they never stopped trying. I could not put this book down. I read it in two days and I loved it! I recommend this book to anyone that wants an easy read, and who is looking for a story that will keep you on your toes!

kid's review

I would highly recommend the book Shackleton¿s Stowaway by Victoria MeKernan. The book genre is historic non-fiction. The book has three main settings that are: Antarctica, Elephant Rock, and Buenos Aires. This book tells the story about Perce Blackborow, and how he hid in a locker to get on board with the legendary Ernest Shackelton who was going on a voyage with the sailors he picked to cross Antarctica. The story is about how Ernest found Perce on the ship and put him into his crew. When they got to Antarctica their ship gets trapped and they have to escape quickly before they run out of food or the ice makes them go crazy and die. It was an amazing survival story that kept me at the edge of my seat. My favorite scene is when they make a camp for the ice to melt so they can sail out of the Antarctic. This is my favorite scene because when they go hunting they found a walrus who started chasing one of the men, and even though he was wearing cross country skis and the walrus weighed more than 400 pounds, he had to keep on skiing to avoid the walrus until the hunter had to shoot the walrus 3 times before the walrus stopped chasing him. When they had finally got the walrus, they started laughing and cheering. This is my favorite scene because before the walrus incident, they had been sad and bored. But when that had happened it brought happiness to the camp. After that the camp had a bit more motivation so that they won¿t give up and so they will continue forward. From reading this book, I learned that things first get worse but then get a whole lot better. I like how the author makes describes the events that are taking place, and how people felt. I thought the book was a great book, but it has a lot of characters to be keeping track of. The reading level of the book was a bit lengthy at 312 pages and small print. I would never forget this book because I am always reminded of its lesson, ¿first things are bad but then they get better.¿ This will probably always be one of my favorite stories for a long time. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes survival stories and historical fiction.

Kid's Review

I think that Shackleton¿s Stowaway by Victoria McKernan is a very adventurous story. I would definitely recommend this to 10 year olds and 54 year olds alike. This historical fiction novel is funny, but at times things seem hopeless. It takes place mostly in the North Pole, the place with icebergs and dangerous pack ice. Only if you do not like rather long books would I not recommend this to you: it has 312 pages. Perce Blackborow, a brave fellow, but also maybe a daredevil is a sailor. He is 18 and looking for a boat to sail on¿ until he hears about Ernest Shackleton and his Endurance. He signs up to get a place in those 25 on the Endurance, but sadly he does not get chosen. Frank Wild, second in command of the expedition lets him work with the dogs until the Endurance left. Bill, his brother, suggests that he should stow away and they agree. What will happen to Perce? I think the best part of the book is when Frank Wild finds out that Perce had stowed away. A quote from the book is: ¿When the sailor opened his locker a few minutes later, he was surprised to find an extra pair of boots. He was even more surprised to discover these boots had feet inside them and these feet were attached to Perce Blackborow.¿ It seems kind of funny when you read it, but if you think about it, it makes you feel like you were him or the sailor. Shackleton¿s Stowaway is a very good book with lots of suspense.

Amazing - 5 stars

This book, Shackleton's Stowaway, is by far one of the most amazing and heart felt books I have ever read.... and I'm just 14! I'm not a big reader but this book I could not put down - I read 179 pages of it in one day! To be honest I picked it because of the cool cover haha... Everyone should read this book.

Should be an Award Winner

This was one of the coolest books I've read in years - and I'm an adult! I'm a children's writer myself and had this in my own personal top-ten list for the Newbery. Fascinating. A must-read.

Not just for teens!

In 1914, 18-year-old Welshman Perce Blackborow and his American shipmate Billy Bakewell find themselves stranded in Buenos Aires after losing their berths to a shipwreck. Famed British polar explorer Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance is in port, and needs replacements for two drunken crewmen. Billy gets hired because of his already rare 'even this close to the golden age of sail' experience with sailing vessels but Perce, who has nothing to offer except youth, strength, and willingness to work hard, only manages to join the expedition by hiding in another sailor's footlocker until the ship is too far at sea for Shackleton to do anything except put the stowaway to work. The great man, whom Perce holds in awe, warns the youngster that in times of desperation stowaways are always eaten first! So begins Victoria McKernan's novel based on the real Perce Blackborow, who did everything ascribed to him in her book except keep a journal. She takes the carefully researched facts of this adventure 'chronicled by Shackleton himself in South' and writes them from the viewpoints of the men involved, and the result enthralled me. This is listed as a novel for teens, but I found it well worth an adult reader's time. I especially appreciated the author's notes at the book's end, in which she identified the few points at which she took liberties with known facts 'mostly a matter of tweaking the time line to give her story a smoother flow'. Hopefully many readers in her intended audience will go on to read South, and wind up - like me - hooked on such books for life.

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