Authentic detail and a brisk pace make this real-life adventure a page-turner.
A nail-biting account of World War II heroism and survival.
In the summer of 1945, veteran Navy captain Charles McVay undertook a secret mission on the USS Indianapolis. With more than 1,000 inexperienced sailors aboard, the cruiser headed for the island of Tinian, near Guam, delivering parts of the atomic bomb destined to end the war. But with no sonar, the ship’s ability to elude attacks was compromised, and a Japanese submarine torpedoed the Indy, triggering a deadly fire. The men were forced to abandon ship, and most found themselves in one of two groups—one led by clergyman Father Conway and physician Dr. Haynes, the other by Ensign Harlan Twible and Chief Engineer Richard Redmayne. McVay was in a separate small group with eight other crew members. There was a scramble for rafts and danger from shark attacks; the men battled hunger, thirst, exposure to the tropical sun, and extreme cold at night. Many perished. Stanton and Tougias keep the suspense high with short sections that cut from one embattled group to another. Rescue eventually came but not without glitches, and McVay faced a different fight for survival back home—court-martialed and later dying by suicide. This is a riveting, well-researched young readers’ adaptation of Stanton’s 2001 original.
Authentic detail and a brisk pace make this real-life adventure a page-turner. (map, note by Stanton, glossary, books by Tougias, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-77132-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is history at its best, an original and appealing way to mark the centennial of this familiar disaster.
A memorial edition of an imagined magazine covers the construction and fateful voyage of the R.M.S. Titanic, Queen of the Ocean, which sank in April 1912.
As in Lincoln Shot! (2008), the design alludes to the historical period, here using the dimensions and sepia tones of an old-time newspaper supplement. Visually dramatic pages are filled with photos and memorabilia as well as eyewitness accounts that add to the “You are there” effect. The first third of Denenberg’s narrative consists of articles purportedly published between 1903 and 1912, the second is the unfinished (and miraculously recovered) journal of the magazine’s correspondent. The final section includes a chronology of the ship’s final hours, statements from survivors and an interview with the captain of the rescue ship, all based on actual testimony. A “note from the publisher” closes the narrative with a short round-up of what followed. This is a story of heroism as well as personal and corporate greed, issues that still resonate today. The text is lively, compelling and convincing, but written to answer 21st-century readers’ questions. Because readers know the outcome, many of the chosen quotations sound ironic, especially cheerful reiterations that the ship is unsinkable.
This is history at its best, an original and appealing way to mark the centennial of this familiar disaster. (author’s note, source notes, bibliography) (Nonfiction.10-14)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-670-01243-5
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
James Bond would cringe at these cleverly reconstructed espionage failures; kids will eat them up.
Holdcroft presents 20 bungled spy plots in high-mirth graphic format.
Spies have been botching their plots since they first started plotting, and Holdcroft has unearthed a number of documented snafus from ancient India, the Persian Empire and Old Cathay, as well as a number of more modern flubs. She has organized the book into five thematic chapters—bad luck, miscommunication, incompetence, overconfidence and betrayal—and most of the episodes lend themselves to her style. This is to paint the principals in both word and image (many of the spies appear to share a family resemblance to Boris and Natasha of the old Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoon) as broadly humorous schemers and, ultimately, fumblers. But she also chocks the stories full of background information to put the spying act in context—the book is, to put it mildly, voluble—and she knows when to throttle back on the yuks when the bite of the act still carries a sting, these being the tragic bombing of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior and the perfidies of Aldrich Ames. Still, there is plenty of room for comedy, from the industrial sabotage behind cochineal red to the bugging device surgically implanted in a cat (the cost of Project Acoustic Kitty to the American taxpayer: $15 million; the cat was run over by a taxi) to the botched recovery of a Soviet submarine (cost to American taxpayer: $500 million).
James Bond would cringe at these cleverly reconstructed espionage failures; kids will eat them up. (bibliography) (Graphic nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55451-223-2
Page Count: 110
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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