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LOST IN THE PACIFIC, 1942

Name: LOST IN THE PACIFIC, 1942
Author: Tod Olson
ISBN: 978-0-545-92811-3

NOT A DROP TO DRINK

From the Lost series , Vol. 1

by Tod Olson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 25, 2016

A riveting, completely engrossing true survival story.

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Olson tells the harrowing true story of how eight men in three tiny inflatable rafts, lost in 68 million square miles of shark-infested Pacific Ocean without food or water and near enemy-held territory, survived three weeks before being rescued.

Instead of a combat mission, Capt. Bill Cherry’s B-17 bomber was transporting one of America’s greatest living war heroes, World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker. Rickenbacker, second only to Charles Lindbergh in fame as a flyer, was to visit Guadalcanal and other bases of operation in the Pacific war zone on a secret fact-finding mission for the Pentagon. Unable to locate its refueling stop, the plane ditched in the ocean, deep in the battle zone. In a dramatic, intensely compelling narrative, Olson chronicles how everyone aboard the B-17 managed to survive three agonizing weeks of dehydration, malnutrition, exposure, threatening tiger sharks, and increasingly waning morale as they desperately waited for rescue. Olson does a particularly fine job conveying the personalities of these men, especially Rickenbacker, who is depicted as harsh and overbearing but perhaps indispensable in keeping up the other men’s spirits. As heroic as all these men were in helping each other survive the ordeal, none were immune to human foibles. Archival photos and other materials punctuate the text, such images as a photo of a lifeboat demo and a war-rationing poster providing valuable context.

A riveting, completely engrossing true survival story. (glossary, author‘s note, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 10-14)

Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-545-92811-3

Page Count: 176

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORY

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THE CIVIL WAR AT SEA

by George Sullivan ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

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In this companion to Portraits of War: Civil War Photographers and Their Work (1998), Sullivan presents an album of the prominent ships and men who fought on both sides, matched to an engrossing account of the war's progress: at sea, on the Mississippi, and along the South's well-defended coastline. In his view, the issue never was in doubt, for though the Confederacy fought back with innovative ironclads, sleek blockade runners, well-armed commerce raiders, and sturdy fortifications, from the earliest stages the North was able to seal off, and then take, one major southern port after another. The photos, many of which were made from fragile glass plates whose survival seems near-miraculous, are drawn from private as well as public collections, and some have never been published before. There aren't any action shots, since mid-19th-century photography required very long exposure times, but the author compensates with contemporary prints, plus crisp battle accounts, lucid strategic overviews, and descriptions of the technological developments that, by war's end, gave this country a world-class navy. He also profiles the careers of Matthew Brady and several less well-known photographers, adding another level of interest to a multi-stranded survey. (source notes, index) (Nonfiction. 10-13)

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-7613-1553-5

Page Count: 80

Publisher: Twenty-First Century/Millbrook

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORY

- BOOK REVIEW
TOM THUMB
by George Sullivan

- BOOK REVIEW
BERENICE ABBOTT, PHOTOGRAPHER
by George Sullivan

- BOOK REVIEW
HELEN KELLER
by George Sullivan

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LEONARDO DA VINCI

From the Giants of Science series

by Kathleen Krull & illustrated by Boris Kulikov ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2005

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Debuting a new series, Krull presents a compelling argument that the great painter of the Renaissance was one of the West’s first real modern scientists. Into the stew of superstition that passed for scientific thought in medieval Europe was born Leonardo, illegitimate and therefore only very sketchily schooled, he grew up largely on his own, rambling around his family’s property and observing nature. The portrait that emerges is of a magpie mind: He studied and thought and wrote about very nearly everything. The breezy text draws heavily from Leonardo’s own writings, discussing his groundbreaking forays into anatomy, water management and flight, always propelled by a commitment to direct scientific observation. That Krull manages, in some 100-plus text pages, to present Leonardo’s scientific accomplishments while at the same time conveying a sense of the man himself—his probable homosexuality is presented frankly, as are his pacifism and the overriding opportunism that had him designing weapons of war for the Duke of Milan—is no mean feat and bodes well for the succeeding volumes in the series. (appendix, bibliography, Web sites, index) (Biography. 10-14)