Book Descriptions
for Capsized! by Patricia Sutton
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
On July 24, 1915, the SS Eastland was scheduled to deliver 2,500 passengers from a port in the Chicago River to a Western Electric employee picnic on the shores of Michigan City, Indiana. Instead, the steamship capsized while still moored in Chicago, resulting in the deaths of 844 on board. Personal accounts following a number of Western Electric employees, their young children and crew members on board, as well as a nurse who aided the injured, relate minute- by-minute details of the disaster, including the bravery of many passengers and first responders. Possible causes of the accident and events that contributed to the tragic outcome are explored, from earlier close calls that had been ignored, to a problematic ballast system, to Harbormaster warnings that didn’t reach the captain. Photographs, diagrams, and extensive notes augment this compelling account of a little-known disaster that claimed more lives than the Titanic. (Ages 9–14)
CCBC Choices 2019. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2019. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
New York Public Library's "100 Best Books for Kids"
Kirkus Reviews' "Best Books of 2018"
2019 Society of Midland Authors Literary Award Honoree
2019 Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People List
2019 Cybils Literary Award Winner
A 2019 Cooperative Children's Book Center's Choice
Wisconsin Writers Contest 2018 Winner of the Tofte/Wright Children's Literary Award
On July 24, 1915, the SS Eastland, filled to capacity with 2,500 passengers and crew, capsized in the Chicago River while still moored to the pier. Happy picnic-goers headed for an employee outing across Lake Michigan suddenly found themselves in a struggle for their lives. Trapped belowdecks, crushed by the crowds attempting to escape the rising waters, or hurled into the river from the upper deck of the ship, roughly one-third of the passengers, mostly women and children, perished that day.
The Eastland disaster took more passenger lives than the Titanic and stands today as the greatest loss of life on the Great Lakes. Capsized! details the events leading up to the fateful day and provides a nail-biting, minute-by-minute account of the ship's capsizing. From the courage of the survivors to the despair of families who lost loved ones, author Patricia Sutton brings to light the stories of ordinary working people enduring the unthinkable.
Capsized! also raises critical-thinking questions for young readers: Why do we know so much about the Titanic's sinking yet so little about the Eastland disaster? What causes a tragedy to be forgotten and left out of society's collective memory? And what lessons from this disaster might we be able to apply today?
Kirkus Reviews' "Best Books of 2018"
2019 Society of Midland Authors Literary Award Honoree
2019 Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People List
2019 Cybils Literary Award Winner
A 2019 Cooperative Children's Book Center's Choice
Wisconsin Writers Contest 2018 Winner of the Tofte/Wright Children's Literary Award
On July 24, 1915, the SS Eastland, filled to capacity with 2,500 passengers and crew, capsized in the Chicago River while still moored to the pier. Happy picnic-goers headed for an employee outing across Lake Michigan suddenly found themselves in a struggle for their lives. Trapped belowdecks, crushed by the crowds attempting to escape the rising waters, or hurled into the river from the upper deck of the ship, roughly one-third of the passengers, mostly women and children, perished that day.
The Eastland disaster took more passenger lives than the Titanic and stands today as the greatest loss of life on the Great Lakes. Capsized! details the events leading up to the fateful day and provides a nail-biting, minute-by-minute account of the ship's capsizing. From the courage of the survivors to the despair of families who lost loved ones, author Patricia Sutton brings to light the stories of ordinary working people enduring the unthinkable.
Capsized! also raises critical-thinking questions for young readers: Why do we know so much about the Titanic's sinking yet so little about the Eastland disaster? What causes a tragedy to be forgotten and left out of society's collective memory? And what lessons from this disaster might we be able to apply today?
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.
