Story of the Titanic

The illustrations in this book are incredibly detailed - my 5-year-old Titanic fan had a blast looking for every little person, room, etc. The text is written to coincide with the elaborate cut-away views of the interior of the ship and encourages the reader to find fun little details, like two steel workers who are sneaking a break during the construction of the giant liner. So it is akin to a Titanic version of "Where's Waldo." We had a blast reading and looking at this great book!

I GOT THIS BOOK LAST WEEK AND THE FIRST TIME I READ IT I THOUGT IT WAS REAL GOOD!I`M A BIG TITANIC FAN!I COLLECT TITANIC STUFF!

If you are into wonderfully illustrated books, you need to check this one out. Noon is one of the best illustrators to paint the subject in quite a while. Story of the Titanic is a slender, but oversized 11 by 14 volume. Through out most of the book every two pages open out to a great double page painting; that's (for the mathematically challenged) 11 by 28! These illustrations tell the story with wonderful cutaway drawings of the interior of the ship. The result is a strong sense of what was happening where during the Titanic's fateful voyage. The amount of detail in each image is amazing, so much so that your eyes can just wander over the page, spotting one neat little artistic touch after another.There is a minor downside to the book, in that the artist's renditions of the ship's interiors are not as accurate as they should be. Not that Noon has placed rooms on the wrong deck, or anything like that, but he has taken liberties with how many of the cabins looked. Apparently this is most extensive in the first class cabins depicted.I am not an expert on the ship interiors, but an acquaintance of mine who has made this area his specialty stated that Noon makes it look like every first class cabin was a period suite, while in reality only some of the cabins on B and C decks were this elaborate.There are some other minor transgressions with how the ship is depicted, but none of these glitches are a fatal flaw. Another issue to consider is that the amount of text is very limited. You are definitely buying this book for the art, not the words. Still, I think most kids (and adults, for that matter) would get a kick out of how the story is depicted in these cutaway paintings. Noon's book has catapulted right onto the list of my five favorite children's books on the subject.