Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of… (1998)

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, by Jennifer Armstrong, tells the story of the shipwreck of the Endurance during an expedition to Antarctica led by the explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. The ship was caught in an ice pack and the crew had to walk hundreds of miles in freezing temperatures. Then several of the crew had to sail to Elephant Island and travel overland to a whaling station. They then went back to rescue the rest of the crew. While this book was an interesting read, I would not use it in a lesson other than perhaps the photographs.
As to the content of the book, the scope is not very broad it deals with the expedition not with anything thing else going on at the time. The focus is narrow as it deals just with the expedition. The book is in-depth though. It is very detailed about the expedition. As to organization the book is chronological. It has many reference aids. It has: a table of contents, index, chapters, and chapter headings. The book is reasonably well organized. ( )

This story was a gripping account of the expedition of Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton who led the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1911. It was very powerful for a couple of reasons. One was that he was such a great leader that was tenacious in his desire to make it to the South Pole. The other is of the incredible struggles these men had to face merely to make it out of the Antarctic alive. The book would be great for a lesson on discovery or expedition in a geography class.
There was not much about Jennifer Armstrong in the author biography other than that she had written four other books for young readers. This is significant because being her fifth book, one would expect it to be as good if not better than the previous ones and also it shows she had had experience in doing research and writing on other levels. I would have liked to see something about her that connected her to the story itself to add to the accuracy of the book.
I liked the way the book was laid out: chronologically with some asides. The opening of the book with the maps of Antarctica and where they had gone, along with diagrams of the Endurance, their ship, and a picture of their crew were all very cool to see, and I kept thumbing back to look at these pages throughout the whole book. The photography in the book as a whole was very enjoyable to look at. The problem I have come across with books like this is there is never enough pictorial representation to connect my imagination to the actual story being told.
Something that I really liked was the timeline depicted on the map of the Antarctica that showed the dates of their journey along with key places. This page I came back to the most to enhance the feeling that I was actually a part of the journey. The book as a whole was very well put together and I feel it would be a great book for all ages, i.e. 5th through some high school level classes.

Up until the point I read this book, I had heard of Ernest Shackelton, but did not really know anything about him, beyond the fact that he had tried to reach the South Pole, or cross the Antarctic, or something along those lines. In fact, when I heard about the "Endurance," I always assumed that referred to what he and his crew "endured" while in the Antarctic region, I had never thought that was the name of the shape. With my lack of knowledge, and my general disinterest in scientific and exploration matters, I was prepared to dislike this book. However, I was greatly interested in the topic by the time I was finished. Armstrong is a masterful storyteller, and I was captivated by her narrative. She uses journals and diaries, as well as survivor's recollections to tell the story of a hellacious experience, one that I could never imagine facing. I was amazed by the fact that everyone made it home in relatively good condition (and was then disheartened to learn that upon their return to Great Britain, many of the crew members pretty much were sent straight to the European continent to fight in World War I, where three of them died).

Armstrong also uses a good number of the few surviving pictures from the expedition to illustrate the book. Although there was one unsettling instance of the use of blackface, with an unsatisfactory explanation as to the connotations that go along with it, I found the pictures as a whole to be a great addition to the text, especially since very few readers will ever experience the Antarctic themselves.

Overall, I truly enjoyed this book, and could see using it in a 20th century history course-we talk about the age of exploration in the 1500s, but do not often think about how recently it is that we as a species have taken the majority of the world for ourselves. ( )

Man's imagination leads him on many fantastic flights of fancy. Often, however, it is not the original plan that becomes legend, but what happens when adversity strikes and how that difficulty is dealt with. This was precisely the case when explorer Ernest Shackleton set out on his Imperial Trans-Antartic expedition. Foiled by pack ice, his ship, the Endurance, would be lost to the antarctic waters and he and his men would be forced to trudge their way over the frozen earth and freezing sea. Though their original trajectory was shaken off course,their survival would become just as noteworthy an accomplishment.

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance by Jennifer Armstrong relays the tale of Shackleton's team in a slightly abbreviated effort intended for adolescent readers. Armstrong's writing focuses on the various trials and tribulations the squad had to endure to make it back to civilization alive. Despite the actual participants speaking of the monotony of their day-to-day on the expedition, Armstrong's book never has much of a dull moment. The author describes events with a rapid flare that keeps the reader turning the page. From the different creatures the crew had to hunt and eat to the strikingly bleak antarctic setting, by the time the end of Shipwreck is reached, you'll feel like the Endurance just left port. ( )

I believe this book would be better suited for students in a geography class, instead of the discipline of biology. Although as a biology teacher, I could introduce different parts of the book related to biology, such as some of the survival tactics of the men including the consumption of protein everyday and the effects of hypothermia. If the students were to do research on survival methods based of their biological and environmental knowledge, this would be a great book to read. The author does a wonderful job at explaining the many survival tactics of the men that were aboard the Endurance. She obviously did extensive reading from excellent sources on many environmental factors associated with Antarctica. A couple of the ways that this is evident is by the way she describes the many types of ice formations and the separation of salt from ocean water during the freezing process.
The author does a wonderful job at describing the many geographical features associated with Antarctica. She also does a great job at describing the events that took place, while keeping me, the reader in suspense. Yes, she announces at the beginning of the book that all men survived their ordeal, which relieved me from the beginning of the story. Although while I was reading the story, I was beginning to wonder how someone could have survived such brutal conditions and could hardly believe that anyone could endure so much cold and fear for so long.
Actual pictures were shown in the book that gave one a greater sense of feeling like they were actually there in Antarctica. Excellent photos of the boats crew and actual scenes from the event. Lovely diagrams of the ship Endurance was also demonstrated, which allowed me to see just how relatively extravagant the ship was. In fact, the author had a way of making me picture the scenes quite well even with out the photographs.
She also provided a quality bibliography, a contents page, index, and acknowledgements. I think it would have been helpful to include a glossary to define the many terms she used in regards to the environmental features in Antarctica, such as the many ice formations.