Trapped by the Ice!: Shackleton's Amazing Antarctic Adventure - Hardcover

McCurdy, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802784380 ISBN 13: 9780802784384

Publisher: Walker Childrens, 1997

Synopsis

Describes the events of the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition when, after being trapped in a frozen sea for nine months, the expedition ship, the Endurance, was finally crushed and Shackleton and his men made the very long and perilous journey across ice and stormy seas to reach inhabited land.

About this title

About the Author:

Michael McCurdy (1942-2016) is the illustrator of Walker & Company's The Signers and the author/illustrator ofTrapped by the Ice, CBC-NCSS Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies. He illustrated more than 150 books and has twice received the New York Times Best Illustrated Books award. Michael lived in western Massachusetts.

From Kirkus Reviews:

McCurdy (The Old Man and the Fiddle, 1992, etc.) switches from his familiar woodcut style to realistic paintings of landscapes, ice, and ocean in a retelling of Sir Ernest Shackleton's famous expedition. It was 1915 when, during Shackleton's attempt to cross the polar ice cap, the Endurance became trapped in ice, soon to be crushed and sunk. McCurdy covers the desperate problems faced by the crew: how to survive without the ship; how to find food while they waited for open water; how they saved a sleeping crewman when their solid perch cracked in two during the night. Frightening voyages in lifeboats and a near-impossible climb on a snow-covered mountain are part of the story; a party of three makes it to a whaling station on South Georgia Island, and no men are lost. The telling is clear and laced with excellent detail, but the picture-book format is less than ideal, requiring an author's note, foreword, and afterword for many of the details; further, the older audience for which the material has the most appeal may be uncomfortable with the format. Although McCurdy's galvanizing enthusiasm comes across on every page, the pictures- -and the bleak, unchanging landscape--don't communicate the cold nor the toll that time and the elements took on the men's clothing and faces. Still, aspects of this are riveting, and it will certainly lead readers into longer, more detailed accounts of this two-year expedition. (map, bibliography, index) (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-10) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Walker Childrens
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0802784380
• ISBN 13: 9780802784384
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: McCurdy Michael