Name: Voyage on the Great Titanic
ISBN: 9780545238342

Ellen Emerson White

In her diary in 1912, 13-year-old Margaret Ann describes how she leaves her lonely life in a London orphanage to become a companion to a wealthy American woman, sails on the Titanic and experiences its sinking.

Voyage on the Great Titanic

In her diary in 1912, thirteen-year-old Margaret Ann describes how she leaves her lonely life in a London orphanage to become a companion to a wealthy American woman, sails on the Titanic, and experiences its sinking.

The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady

Caroline Lewicki

I really love the Dear America books and this one is no exception. The retelling of a young girl’s experience on the Titanic, while fictitious, is based in history and really gives you a sense of how frightening an experience that was. There was a bit of goofy foreshadowing that as an adult I thought was silly but probably didn’t notice at all when I read it for the first time as a kid.

Meredith Rose

The sinking of the Titanic is a difficult event to capture in diary format, but I think author Ellen Emerson White did a decent job. 

She definitely excelled in the first half of the book. Her depiction of life on the ship - from vivid descriptions of its archetectural grandeur to the lavish meals to the modern recreation and entertainment options and even the unfortunate segregation of social classes lurking beneath the surface of this opulence - helped me understand why passengers viewed the ship as indestructible.

It really was every aspect of normal life set sail in the middle of the ocean. With this level of familiarity and comfort, it makes sense that passengers believed the Titanic was unsinkable. I appreciate that Emerson brought these thoughts feelings to life in the first half of the story through her main character, Margaret Ann Brady.

The second half of the story seemed more challenging to tell through diary entries. At times it was hard to follow the abrupt changes in tense from past to present, and I often found myself wondering how and where Mararget was finding time amid the chaos to sit down and write. All things considered, I think Emerson did a pretty decent job capturing the tragic events of the night, even if the tense and timeline were a bit confusing. 

Other things I really liked about this book:

• Margaret's character (she was mature beyond her years but also had a nice witty humor)
• The romance (it didn't overwhelm me and was very charming and realistic)
• Glimpses into Margaret's background (added depth to her character and relationship with her brother)

Overall, I enjoyed The Voyage on the Great Titanic and would definitely read it again. It also made me interested to read other historical fiction and nonfiction accounts of the accident!

Heather Heaton

This was a reread from my childhood. I used to love these series of Dear America books and wanted to go back and see how I feel about them now. It transported me to the Titanic and imagining what it would be like to live through such an experience. I love these books for kids as a great way to talk about and learn about a historical event through the eyes of a young girl. At the end there are some pictures from the Titanic and historical facts, but the story seems to really weave alot of this in as well.

Voyage on the Great Titanic

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