Hubris – the ship that could not sink. Gallantry – women and children first. Social history – the end of an era. Sentimentality – “Abide With Me.” The story of the Titanic disaster has something for everyone. In this version of the tale, Shelley Tanaka focuses on two young men, Jack Thayer, a 17-year-old American traveling home from Europe with his parents, and 22-year-old Harold Bride, a junior wireless operator. In nine vignettes she sets the scene of life on the Titanic, both above and below stairs, and describes the events of the night of disaster. Adding dialogue and description to the known historical facts and personalities, she creates a real story within the story. When Jack and Harold meet on an overturned lifeboat in an icy sea the two strains of life on the Titanic come together: two nationalities, two social classes, and two ways of life.

This narrative is fleshed out with drawings, paintings, photos, diagrams, and sidebar information. The curious can find out what happened to the pets on board or where the iceberg came from or how Morse code works. Some of this material is very effective. The role of wireless communication is an important theme in Tanaka’s narrative, and a reproduction of the telegram sent from the rescue ship, the Carpathia, announcing the disaster (“Deeply regret advise your Titanic sank this morning”), gives one a chilling sense of immediacy. At other points I found the busy magazine format distracted me from the movement of the narrative. But this is likely not a problem for the CD-ROM generation of information surfers. My subversive instinct would be to read this book aloud to its audience first. Let the browse and bop come after the story.