Titanic: Book Three: S.O.S. Gordon Korman. New York, NY: Scholastic (Distributed in Canada by Scholastic Canada), 2011. 166 pp., pbk., $6.99. ISBN 978-0-545-12333-4. Grades 4-7 / Ages 9-12. Review by Tanya Boudreau. **** /4

excerpt:

The voices on the boat deck were becoming a little less quiet and civilized as the tilt of the ship grew obvious to even the unseasoned. But Captain Smith heard none of this. He peered through binoculars at a set of lights on the horizon-lights that could only belong to a steamer.

"Why doesn't she answer? he mused aloud. "She can't be more than eight, perhaps ten miles away." He turned to the sailor at his side who was signaling with a Morse lamp. "Are you getting any response?

"Negative, sir. But she doesn't seem to be moving off."

Smith grimaced. "She doesn't seem to be moving at all. Surely she sees us."

S.O.S concludes the "Titanic" trilogy by Gordon Korman. This last book is about survival and sacrifice. The Titanic is sinking, but Sophie Bronson and Juliana Glamm won't think of leaving the ship without their loved ones. The problem is that their loved ones don't want to leave. Juliana's dad, the Earl of Glamford, would rather finish his poker game, and Sophie's mom, the famous suffragist, refuses to get on one of the lifeboats on the principle of 'women and children first.' Junior Steward Alfie Huggins has managed to escape the passenger with the criminal past, but when they are stranded in the ocean together, he has to make a decision that may cost a life or two. Paddy Burns cannot save his dad, one of the firemen working to ensure the lights stay on and the distress calls get through on the sinking Titanic, but he does save other third class passengers by leading them out of the dangerous steerage area. Korman's four main characters reunite in the water, but as hard as they try to save one another, they lose one of their best friends. The book doesn't end with sadness though. Korman takes the reader back to Belfast for an uplifting revelation and gives the young survivors a future they can look forward to living.

Highly Recommended.

Tanya Boudreau is a librarian at the Cold Lake Public Library in Cold Lake, AB.

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