Escaping Titanic by Marybeth Lorbiecki, illustrated by Kory S. Heinzen

Pub date: February 1, 2012.

Author website.

Commemorate the Titanic's disastrous voyage with this harrowing tale of survival. Follow the true story of young Ruth Elizabeth Becker as her awe of the mighty Titanic turns to horror when she is separated from her mother and siblings. (netgalley.com)

I think I've reviewed all of two picture books in my three years of blogging so forgive me if this comes across as a little too short. I just don't know what to say about it!

Well, I loved the illustrations. At times they were both beautiful and goofy, capturing the majesty of the Titanic along with the people sailing on it. But I couldn't help but think that for a story that really is so serious, the expressions on some of the faces were a little too cartoony and goofy. One panel showed one of the stewards coming into the room and telling everyone to get their lifebelts on. But instead of a serious face, he looks a bit cross-eyed. Yeah it makes the scene lighter and I know it's a picture book but still . . . it almost seemed . . . inappropriate. I don't know if this is something typical of a picture book, to lighten up a more dramatic scene with untoward facial expressions so as not to frighten the children reading it but it felt a little off.

The story itself was succinct. It would be a bit morbid to think that the girl was doing anything but surviving the end of the story so you knew it was coming but that doesn't mean there wasn't a tense moment where she was left on a ship as she watched the rest of her family get lowered in a lifeboat. And then when the lifeboats are rescued you wonder if she's going to find her family. For about half a second. The story is really in the illustrations, the words acting merely as captions to supplement the visuals. It's not that they're bad; there's just more to be garnered from the drawings.

As a childless 28-year-old female reading a picture book, I've come across better. The story's a little dry and the illustrations are a bit bipolar but it was still enjoyable to this Titanic nut. From the POV of a child reading this, I can definitely see how they would really enjoy the pictures and how the small story itself would suck them right in, how they would hinge on every word and wonder if the girl was going to make it out okay. Damn jadedness. Personally I was more interested in the information about Ruth at the end of the story. How she never told anyone that she was a Titanic survivor until 1982 when the wreckage started getting poked at and she came forward about it. That's a long time to sit on something like that.

So really, there's something for everyone. A great story for the kids and a little bit of extra information for the adults reading it to them. Plus some great pictures for all.

Ban Factor: Low - Seriously. Unless they take issue with the mention of people's screaming death throes (although watered down a bit in the book), there's nothing wrong with this one.

Picture the Dead by Adele Griffin, illustrated by Lisa Brown + Contest!

Published May 2010.

Jennie Lovell's life is the very picture of love and loss. First she is orphaned and forced to live at the mercy of her stingy, indifferent relatives. The her fiance falls on the battlefield, leaving her heartbroken and alone. Jennie struggles to pick up the pieces of her shattered life, but is haunted by a mysterious figure that refuses to let her bury the past.

When Jennie forms an unlikely alliance with a spirit photographer, she begins to uncover secrets about the man she thought she loved. With her sanity on edge and her life in the balance, can Jennie expose the chilling truth before someone - or something - stops her? (book back blurb)

Throughout the entire book I felt it hard to actually connect with Jennie. We're thrown right into the action of the plot and told about her past so splattered throughout the story that I feel I just don't know her well enough to really care. That's not to say the story wasn't good, nor was Jennie not a good character. I was just detached from her situation, like I was watching a TV show play out before me.

It wasn't until the very end that I really felt anything for her but I have to say, the ending was fantastic and quite possibly the best part of the book. The last couple of chapters, where the charade started to unravel, had me turning page after page after page to find out what's going on. The rest of the story was interesting enough although I think the spirit photography wasn't as in the forefront as it's portrayed as being. It plays a catalyst for certain plot points in the story but really stays in the background for the most part.

I did like how the story added some validity to the Spiritualist movement. While the spirit photographer was widely a hoax, some of the things that happened to Jennie's photos were rather hard to explain and even if they could be, they were rather enormously coincidental to be, well, a coincidence.

For me the secondary characters were much more three dimensional than Jennie herself was. I loved Aunt, in all her bitchtastic attitude. She was just a character that begged to be loved to hated. Even Quincey was quite a dynamic character. He was such a train wreck - I couldn't keep my eyes off of him, especially at the end. Very much bat shit but it made him all the more interesting to read.

I loved the drawings. They added so much more depth to the story, as if I were paging through Jennie's scrapbook myself. The script was hard to read sometimes but the photos were creepy, so solemn and morbid, most without actually intending to be so. They just made the overall feel of the story that much better.

Picture the Dead was a good read, especially at the end where some real girl power and suck it attitude comes into play, but I still had a distance with it. I wish I could have connected more with Jennie. Maybe if there was a little more exposition at the beginning to give us a better understanding of just where Jennie came from and why her situation was the way it was would have helped. But it is what it is.

Contest Time!!!

Want my ARC of Picture the Dead? Just fill out the form below for your chance to win!

Picture the Dead Virtual Book Launch!

Straight from Sourcebooks' mouth -

On Thursday, May 6th at 7:30pm PST (10:30pm ET) two-time National Book award finalist Adele Griffin and co-writer Lisa Brown (best selling author/illustrator) will be hosting a virtual book launch for their new book, Picture the Dead in conjunction with the wonderful independent bookstore, the San Francisco Booksmith and the also independent author resource RedRoom.com (Sourcebooks, by the way, is also independent!).

Lemony Snicket spokesperson (Daniel Handler) will be reading a statement of introduction to this horrid story! Both the authors and Mr. Snicket himself will be in costume.

SEE IT LIVE AT: http://www.redroom.com/picture-the-dead-book-webcast DOWNLOAD A FLYER FOR YOUR LIBRARY, SCHOOL OR COFFEE SHOP: http://teenFire.sourcebooks.com

Any questions for the authors can be posted in the launch discussion forum on the TeenFire website prior to the event. You can also use the TeenFire chat room to discuss the event in real time!

Questions for the authors can be posted in the comments section on Red Room or in the discussion forum on the TeenFire website (TeenFire.Sourcebooks.com) in the days leading up to the event.

Picture the Dead—an illustrated mystery story in the gothic tradition with graphic elements—is taken straight from the pages and photographs of history. This paranormal mystery follows Jenny as she uncovers the mysterious circumstances surrounding her fiancé’s death in a prison camp during the Civil War.

Find out more on www.PictureTheDead.com.

If you want to hear about a new, scary story to read in the dark—and learn about the rich illustrations and wonderful history surrounding the book—you can just log in and watch!

You can use this event to meet other YA addicts across the globe right on our TeenFire Chat Room—7:30pm PT, 10:30pm ET. BE THERE!