Jennifer Armstrong (1) (1961–)

Just imagine yourself in the most hostile place on earth. It's not the Sahara or the Gobi Desert. It's not the Arctic. The most hostile place on earth is the Antarctic, the location of the South Pole--what's the difference? The Arctic is mostly water--with ice on top, of course--and that ice is never more than a few feet thick. But under the South Pole lies a continent that supports glaciers up to two miles in depth. Almost the entire southern continent is covered by ice. The mammoth icecap show more presses down so heavily that it actually distorts the shape of the earth. The ice never melts; it clings to the bottom of the world, spawning winds, storms, and weather that affect the whole planet.

I have read Jennifer Armstrong's Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World five or six times now. (Most recently in 2022). The narrative is so strong and compelling, and, yes, even inspiring. It is definitely one of my favorite nonfiction books. And nonfiction isn't something I usually take the time to reread. It is rare for me to keep coming back again and again to a nonfiction book.

Originally published in 1998, Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World won the Orbis Pictus Award in 1999. The book follows "the extraordinary true story of Shackleton and the Endurance." If you are unfamiliar with this story, then you really SHOULD read this one. It is a great introduction to the subject. Chapter by chapter, the book follows Shackleton and his men on their journey to Antarctica. Almost from the start, there are indicators that their goal, their quest, will not be an easy one to achieve. After a series of mishaps--thanks to nature--it becomes a long fight to survive.

The story is simple and yet dramatic. I think the story would be gripping no matter who told it. But I do think that Jennifer Armstrong did a wonderful job in painting a very human picture of Shackleton and his crew. I think the ending was beautiful--very moving! This one is a book I think everyone should read. show less

I went into Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World not expecting to be overly impressed. I had already read the Alfred Lansing account and did not expect to be won over by what presented itself as a book for advanced adolescent readers. Having given it the benefit of the doubt, I was very impressed by Armstrong's version. It included all of the thrilling details, and held onto the sense of adventure that the story inherently exudes.
There were many features of Armstrong's book which I in fact show more preferred to my prior reading. Most noticeably, the photographs visually enhanced the experience, and there was a good focus on the fact that the sailors were very deliberate in keeping an account of their voyage, so that the retelling is precise and accurate. The photographs and graphics were all pertinent and well explained.
Having read the Lansing edition, the only complaint I had was that Armstrong does not always fully enunciate to the reader how dire or excruciating some circumstances were. This was not a universal problem, many parts of the story do a capable job of gripping you in the impossibility of their task. In all, Armstrong has an admirable retelling of an incredible story, worth the read, but not appropriate for pre high school audiences in most cases. show less

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance by Jennifer Armstrong is an incredible look at some of the last days of exploration. What men like 13th century Marco Polo started, Sir Ernest Shackleton sought to finish by crossing Antarctica, the final unexplored continent.

This was a modern expedition, and from a record-keeping perspective, that is what makes this look at the Endurance such a captivating human story. Shackleton actually show more financed the expedition by mortgaging in advance the intellectual property rights to the story. Each man on the expedition kept journals that Shackleton owned the rights to, and those journals provide an unprecedented (as far as I know) look at the emotional experiences of men engaged in polar exploration. Shackleton also formed a film syndicate with the intention of making a movie about the voyage, and the vivid photographs interwoven throughout the book were taken by the expedition photographer. In short, this was capitalism at it's finest; not your granddaddy's mercantilism. The perfect foundation for a nonfiction book.

Shipwreck is a chapter book and includes maps, ship plans, the crew manifest, a table of contents, a bibliography, and an index. Author Jennifer Armstrong is a prolific YA writer, and brings a clear and direct tone to the content. Her descriptions of men weeping, dogs howling, and the captain and his crew constantly waking from nightmares screaming, paints a vivid psychological picture, but she doesn't belabor these dramatic aspects. Instead, her descriptions of the psychological torment are rather matter of fact. Her descriptions of the cold and wet misery suffered by the crew are, however, more likely to grab the attention of young readers. This book is probably appropriate for Middle Schoolers on up, though I would have pushed that age higher if it didn't begin with the author's assurance that every single member of the crew lived.

The book begins with Shackelton's motivation for the expedition, and a description of the preparation it required. Armstrong takes us all the way to the men returning to England, and through the fairly tragic reality that (spoiler alert) rather than ride off into the sunset, the men were pretty much all immediately conscripted into World War I. Finally, it ends with Shackleton's eventual death on the Antarctic continent, where he is buried. show less

I cannot say that I liked this book, but I also cannot say that it was through any fault of the author; in fact, Jennifer Armstrong's powers of description put me in a place, as a reader, that I didn't want to be. She stranded me in an Antarctic no man's land with 28 brave, capable, scared, and desolate men. Although the book's cover gives away the fact the the men all make it out alive, it is so hard to believe that one almost forgets that they make it. The journey starts out harrowing show more enough in their ship, but when the ship gets crunched up between ice floes and they have to camp out in the elements it is almost unimaginable what the men survived. I say almost because Armstrong allows the reader to imagine it quite well, in fact forces the reader to, with her detailed descriptions and agile storytelling. She fills in the blanks just right. For instance, in the chapter "Mutiny," Armstrong prefaces the story of how Shackleton dealt with some resistance to his leadership with the story of a famous mutiny of an expedition lead by Sir John Franklin, and the "insanity, desertion, [and] cannibalism" that took place (62). She mentions how there was a book pertaining to a rescue mission for those men, and that the men of the Endurance would have known the stories of the ill-fated crew. This sets up the suspense perfectly, because we realize what could be at stake if a mutiny did indeed take place, and we also get insight into what Shackleton may have been thinking when he tried to avert it.

With respect to the detail that Armstrong includes,she describes all aspects of the natural world around the men, many details of their actions and challenges, and even their thoughts and fears when possible. This book feels like a complete story. Armstrong clearly researched this book very thoroughly, and the photographs add so much as well. They fill in the rest of the blanks. I lay curled up in my comfortable chair reading this book, but feeling none of the comforts of my room temperature cozy home. My toes ached from frostbite. I was afraid and disgusted and hopeful and on edge. I waited for killer whales to find me and despaired at being away from civilization for so long. By the end of the book I was spent. It was almost too much. I wanted to stop reading about halfway through, as every harrowing detail of the journey is told here, and readers, it turns out, can get PTSD from a book. So Armstrong did a wonderful job; she took me there. I just didn't want to go. show less