Pig on the Titanic: A True Story
Grade 2-4&ndash;According to the author's note, this this story is based on a true incident. Edith Rosenbaum, a prominent fashion designer of the day, is sailing on theTitanic, accompanied by a music-box pig given to her by her mother as a good-luck charm. As the pig explains, after the collision with the iceberg, Edith wants to let someone else take her place in the lifeboat, but a sailor, mistaking the pig in her arms for a baby, grabs it and throws it into a lifeboat and Edith follows. Throughout the long cold hours until rescue, Maxixe plays his little tune over and over, buoying the spirits of the children onboard. Crew's text deftly captures the drama of that night, while Whatley's realistic watercolors showcase the grandeur and opulence of the doomed ship as well as the frenetic activity as it was abandoned. The subject of the Titanic is of perennial interest to children, and this well-told slice of life, with its emphasis on a single compassionate act, should prove popular.&ndash;Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJCopyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.