You guessed it! Another “Choose your own Adventure!” This one, surprise, surprise, takes place on the Titanic. You are a passenger on the Titanic. It’s a pretty awesome ship, nearly 4 city blocks long. You notice, though, that there are only 16 life boats, not enough for the 2200 people on board. You don’t freak out though because there are enough life vests for everyone. Plus, what are the odds you are going to need to use them? But bad things do happen and the ship crashes into an iceberg. At this point you get three options on which character you will play in the story. I, of course, chose the 12-year-old boy traveling with his father to New York. I know this probably isn’t the best decision since the others include a surgeon’s assistant or the governess to a wealthy family, but it’s the closest to who I actually am. It was quite perfect because it turns out this little boy (me!) is a Boy Scout! This time I have better luck and my father & I survive! After the “adventure” the book explains why only 705 of the 2200 people survived. Most of them were third-class passengers. This is the part of the boat that hit the iceberg, flooding first. Also, this part of the ship was separated from the rest. The rich believed third-class carried diseases so they were kept away. But since they were separated, the third-class passengers couldn’t reach the life boats. Another reason was that many people didn’t want to leave the ship to get on the life boats. I don’t think they understood how serious the situation was. When they did realize, it was too late and the life boats were gone. The end of the book lists several of the real survivors of the Titanic, including the youngest passenger on the Titanic, a little girl who was only two months old! She lived to be 97 years old and was the last living survivor of the Titanic sinking. I didn’t do as well on this survival quiz because I haven’t quite learned what to do if a ship begins to sink, but you better believe I know now! Like the Antarctica book, I liked this book because I got to take part in an adventure but also learned a lot! http://www.jennsbookshelves.com/2011/08/04/tales-of-a-formerly-reluctant-reader-the-capstone-edition/
Whether they read these books in the classroom or on their own, they will come away knowing much more about all sides of a historical event or time period. These are excellent books for reluctant readers as they love interacting with the text, art elements and primary sources in the story.
Decisions in life are what make our personal roads twist and turn as they do. But what would you do if a decision you made was the difference between living or dying? The reader in this interactive book make life or death choices, but thankfully in the safe confines of an informative book. Readers of Can You Survive the Titanic? go along for the ride as a medical crew member, a staff member to a wealthy employer in charge of young children, and a twelve year old expert to the nuts and bolts of the grandest ship to ever set sail at the time. Written in the second person, the use of the words “you are” really make the voyage and its occupants very important decisions (should you give your blanket to a fellow lifeboat inhabitant or should you offer to share it?) literally spring to life. The interactive way the book is arranged (to follow another path, turn to page ___) would make a superb entryway for a parent or teacher to segue way into life choices, informed decision making and the luck of the draw. Impressionable readers could learn a great deal more than history in this deceptively skinny book. Can You Survive the Titanic? reminded me of Meanwhile: Pick Any Path by Jason Shiga in its organization. So popular is Meanwhile, that I was forced to put out a hostage notice (an idea gleaned from Donalyn Miller) in order to locate the popular book’s whereabouts. I predict Can You Survive the Titanic will be equally as popular in my classroom, and look forward to the book’s publication. http://www.recycleyourreads.com/?p=2648
These are fast reads that will have students turning the pages back and forth until they think they've reached every permutation possible. The photos are bright, vivid, and exciting, and the books are graphically appealing.
Both books blend facts and historical accuracy with the ability to make decisions about what happens to a character trying to stay alive. In Can You Survive the Titanic you can choose to be a first class passenger, a medical worker, or a third class passenger, and then attempt to survive the sinking (two-thirds of the passengers didn’t). In Can You Survive Antarctica you can try to survive temperatures up to one hundred degrees below zero fahrenheit as either a modern explorer or with Scott and Amundsen in the early 1900’s. Each has a basic section at the end that explains what happened to the real people that experienced these extremes. Why I picked it up: I was looking for quick reads for reluctant and low-ability readers, and these segmented, Choose Your Own Adventure-type books appealed to me because of their format. Why I finished it: I found myself madly flipping back and forth to see if I would be killed by a rogue leopard seal, or if I would drown in third class under a wave of oil-fouled water. I'd give it to: Wyatt, who would like the danger, because so many of the paths end in death. T.F., who has serious ADHD and would like the ability to stop and restart reading these without losing the narrative thread, because his attention waxes and wanes. http://www.unshelved.com/bookclub/2011-7-22
Middle graders will have fun making choices and learning more about the Titanic’s fateful voyage. I appreciate the amount of research done by the author.
These books are going to be popular with your young readers, especially the boys. The books describe a variety of choices to a disaster. If the reader makes the wrong choices, they are dead. A benefit is that the books teach survival skills, and each book describes a different type of environment. These books will be popular with children who are adventurous, plus they provide mental exercise for the reader. Each book provides three story paths and contains a survival guide related to the topic, Real Survivors, and Survival Quiz sections. Recommended.
This choose your own adventure is a great addition to any up and coming reader. Also, since it is fairly historically actuate, it would be great for a project on the Titanic to get the kids in the people's shoes.
