Titanicat (True Stories)

Luke knows so much information about the Titanic that he decided to write a book about it. When he visited the museum, he presented the book to Mary Kellogg-Joslyn, co-owner of the museum. She was so impressed with his writing and enthusiasm that she decided to help Luke get his book published. The WBIR news story can be found at http: Luke spent all day on Saturday at the museum signing copies of his new book and he has now been inspired to write a second book involving facts for adults.

The Titanic Museum Attraction will have the book for sale in their store at the museum in Pigeon Forge, Tn and I hope that we can also include his book in our website store. If you have any questions about how to get your hands on these two publications, send me a message or call our museum at I would love to hear your reviews! Your email address will not be published.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. The Titanic is such a popular story, but what really interested me was the fact that it is from a different perspective. Many people know about the love story portrayed in the movie, or they know about the general story of the ship sinking. Although the ending of the Titanic will always end in the same tragedy, Titanicat gives the more hopeful story of someone who survived. The images are also beautiful, and they are very realistic that they help children envision the story and all the details between the lines.

I would recommend this book to teachers to use for lessons about the Titanic or over different perspectives to a story.

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The book is also very entertaining to read on its own, so parents could also benefit from having this book in their library. However, I feel like it would be good resource for a classroom history lesson as it is a true story, but it is written in narrative format.

Dec 01, Helen Zhang rated it really liked it Shelves: Jim finds a cat aboard the Titanic and was put in charge of it. He called the cat and found her family of cats. One day wandered off the boat when it was docking to pick up passengers so he jumped ship to rescue on shore and the boat left without Jim. Later, Jim learned that the Titanic had hit an iceberg and there were very little survivors and he felt lucky because had saved him.

Throughout the book, there were drawings that matched how the boat looked like in real life. Before the story started, there was a brief introduction to the Titanic and the people who were on it and where they were going. This book is a great starter book to how the Titanic came to be. Students who are curious about the Titanic can start by reading this story and pull out the historical facts and research them if they are more interested. Students can even write a play about it and perform it for their family or the school.

Dec 01, Julian rated it really liked it. As a fan of history and lover of cats, Titanicat was a journey to read. The journey starts before the Titanic sets sail to the United States about a kid and his cat that are going to board the ship. The kid realized the cat is not on the ship when it is about to sail and goes on a journey to find the cats. Overall, this book is a great historical fiction book about the Titanic. I think it is unique because it does not actually involve the Titanic as much but everyone knows about it so they know As a fan of history and lover of cats, Titanicat was a journey to read.

I think it is unique because it does not actually involve the Titanic as much but everyone knows about it so they know what happens to the ship. In this story the reader can realize that the cat causing the kid to miss the boarding call and get left behind is a blessing in disguise. I loved the picture quality and attention to detail that the illustrator uses. Feb 26, J. Holman rated it it was amazing Shelves: Kids love books about the Titanic. Put them together, based on a true story, and you have a winner. I read this to lower elementary classes, and you probably could have heard a pin drop.

Historical fact spoiler alert: So don't worry about upsetting the kids or yourself. Jan 08, Carrie rated it liked it. A fairly cute book about superstitions and a fictitious? There are lots of similar stories of people who missed the "unsinkable" voyage. Jan 12, George rated it it was amazing Shelves: Now look what you've made me do. But far deeper than these words and the misfortune he chose to endure, was a tender heart willing to make a huge sacrifice to right what seemed like 's negligent moment.

Nov 12, Maren rated it liked it Shelves: This one did not grip the kids. The illustrations are very photo realistic and the kittens were cute, but it fell flat for us. Jan 11, Cecilia rated it it was amazing Shelves: This was such a cute story. It made me tear up a bit in the end. The illustrations are gorgeous! Jul 15, Jenifer Neilsen rated it it was amazing Shelves: Anticipation Guide a graphic organizer used to activate students' prior knowledge and build curiosity about a new topic.

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They are used to stimulate students' interest in a topic and set a purpose for reading. While carrying out his work, he becomes worried as has disappeared and begins searching the enormous ship. Finally, he is delighted when he finds that gave birth to a litter of kittens. After two weeks of fittings and sprucings, and trial runs, the Titanic is ready to launch to sea. Jim notices that is nowhere to be found, he has got to find her. The Titanic can't cast off without her lucky cat.

Jim has to make a choice that will affect the rest of his life. It would be set up with 5 columns labeled statement, agree or disagree, page, correct? Jim is excited to be on the Titanic. The cat should not be on the ship. Jim cares about the cat. The cat gets Jim in trouble. Jim leaves the cat in Southampton. We would begin using the guide just with the beautiful illustrations. Then move into the text. As we discuss each statement, we would also make predictions for the end of the story. Nov 16, Jennifer rated it liked it Shelves: Based on the true story of a cabin boy who escaped the sinking of the Titanic thanks to the ship's lucky cat, Titanicat reimagines the details of the story using historical facts such as diaries, interviews with survivors, and models of the ship itself.

The illustrations, by Robert Papp, recreate the grandeur of the Titanic in what appear to be oils on canvas no illustration note. Whatever the medium, the paintings are filled with bright, almost glowing colors, and texture that gives them dept Based on the true story of a cabin boy who escaped the sinking of the Titanic thanks to the ship's lucky cat, Titanicat reimagines the details of the story using historical facts such as diaries, interviews with survivors, and models of the ship itself. Whatever the medium, the paintings are filled with bright, almost glowing colors, and texture that gives them depth.

However, there were some details that bothered me. The mother cat gives birth to four kittens according to the text, but in the picture of the new cat family we only see the mother and three kittens; a portion of the audience for this book is bound to be the cat-crazy and they will be sure to notice this discrepency.

Sometimes the illustrations of Jim, the cabin boy, are a little photo-realistic to match the rest of the illustrations and he's certainly much too clean for the position he holds on the ship; in general the story is pretty romanticized by both the illustrations and the text. The text is long enough that it limits the audience for this picture book to 1st grade at the youngest and more likely to even older readers.

The book is probably a good fit for school libraries where there's high interest in the Titanic disaster or regular storytimes for older kids. Crisp starts with an introductory note on the Titanic which includes lots of fun facts about the disaster and ends with an Author's Note giving a short description of his research process and sources. Jul 08, EmiLee rated it really liked it Shelves: Historical Fiction Pre-Reading Strategy: KWL I would introduce the book by showing the class the cover of the book and reading the title.

I would ask them what is in the background of the front cover the Titanic. I would then explain that we would be using the KWL strategy. We would start the K know section.

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I would ask students what they know about the Titanic. I would also ask where they think the cat fits in. The students would have the opportunity to fil Audience: The students would have the opportunity to fill in information on the smartboard. I am guessing the students would want to know more about the cat and how it fits into the story about the Titanic.

The students may also want to know more about the Titanic. After students have had the opportunity to share and put responses on the smartboard, I would read the introduction at the beginning of the book.

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The introduction gives a brief description of the Titanic and peeks the reader's curiosity about a cat aboard the Titanic. After reading the intro, I would spend a few moments with the class adding any additional information to the K or W section of the chart. I will keep the chart to refer to after reading to fill in the L learned section and to determine if the students' questions were answered after reading the story. I would also discuss with students where to find out more information about the Titanic if some questions were left unanswered.

Jul 18, Lisa Nielsen rated it it was amazing. I love that it is essentially a true story history -- cross-curricular merit , I love that it involves the Titanic, as this subject seems to continue to interest a lot of children as well as adults, and I especially love that it has cats. I can't yet speak for the older grades, but with my 2nd graders, anything's always been better if it involves an animal or two. I found a journal article that was of particular interest to me, as I was having difficulty deciding whether I wanted to use the pre-questioning or vocabulary preview pre-reading strategy with "Titanicat".

The results fascinate me: In light of this, I decided I would implement both strategies in my classroom, then informally poll the students to see which strategy they preferred vs. Jun 10, Christine rated it really liked it Shelves: I was unfamiliar with the story of the boy who cared for the Titanic's cat and followed it off at the last stop before it sank. The story was well written and portrayed the events and history of this tale well. The illustrations are very warm and soft looking. The kittens seem as though they could jump right off the page and onto your lap.

I think that portraying the main character from Ireland with red hair and green eyes was a bit of Hollywood typecasting most people with red hair come from Sc I was unfamiliar with the story of the boy who cared for the Titanic's cat and followed it off at the last stop before it sank. I think that portraying the main character from Ireland with red hair and green eyes was a bit of Hollywood typecasting most people with red hair come from Scotland, not Ireland but otherwise I have nothing negative to say about them.

As with all picture books that tell the story of a historical event, there is a nice page listing primary sources and museums for further learning. Being a native of Massachusetts I had never heard of such a place so I Googled it. Lo and behold, it's a neighborhood in Springfield. Learned something else new today. I would recommend this book for older children since it is rather text heavy and the subject matter of sinking ships and loss of life might be a little disturbing for the preschool set; although there are no illustrations of the actual sinking, it is mentioned in the story.

Nov 09, Melissa Barbier rated it it was amazing Shelves: This book was not what I expected it to be. The main character Jim is so excited to work on the Titanic. He finds a cat on board and one of the workers tells him to take care of the cat along with his other job on board.

He follows the cat around and finds that she has kittens. He saves one from under a life boat so that she does not fall overboard.

When the ship is finally ready to take off on its journey, Jim notices that the cat has been carrying each kitten off of the ship and back to land. However, the cat is missing the kitten that Jim saved earlier! He scoops up the kitten and runs after the cat to make sure that all of the kittens are together with their mom. In doing so, he ends up missing the boat and watches the Titanic go off without him. At first he is very upset about it, but later realizes what great luck it was that he did not stay on the boat. The beginning has a lot of great background knowledge about the Titanic for students to have a frame of reference before reading it.

This is a great book for students probably 2nd grade and up.

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While it does not have any graphic details, it does state that there were many people who died on the Titanic. If a first grade classroom was learning about the Titanic this could be a read aloud for them because it is very "kid friendly" as far as books about the Titanic go. Feb 02, Julie Failla Earhart rated it it was amazing. Even if the book is geared toward children ages four to eight. The numbers was the number of the ship and therefore the name of the cat cabin boy Jim Mulholland gives the tortoiseshell cat that accompanies him as he boards the ship for the first time.

When the cat got off in Southhampton, taking her kittens with her, the superstitious young sailor followed. I think kids would like it. Review originally appeared at www. Jun 06, Katie Weinert rated it liked it Shelves: Audience - Primary Genre - Historical Fiction A Visual Imagery is a strategy that can help make reading more of an active activity rather than an inert one.

Visual imagery usually entails students reading a portion of the book that provides information rich in details and sensory information. This can work as a way for student's to over come challenging words in the book, as well as work in a way to share their different imagery settings brainstormed. B The section of the book that I would read al Audience - Primary Genre - Historical Fiction A Visual Imagery is a strategy that can help make reading more of an active activity rather than an inert one. B The section of the book that I would read aloud to children would be the page about " Here Jim I s looking for the missing ship cat, and the story if filled with all kinds of sensory descriptors, sight, smell, sound, even touch.

After reading these few pages, I would ask the children to close their eyes and try to imagine what the ship really looked like. To try to visualize it in their heads. Smell what the fresh varnish and paint smells like, and feel how soft the ship cat is when you pet her. After explaining the details of the visual imagery activity I would re read the page s slowly, and then discuss as a whole class what they saw, smelt, heard, and felt while I read the story.

Apr 20, Gretchen rated it really liked it Shelves: I picked this book up at a Scholastic book fair that was held at the school on the campus of the hospital where I work. Jim Mulholland is a young Irish boy who gets a job as a cabin boy on the Titanic. He is assigned to care for the ship's cat, which he names , the Titanic's construction number. Apparently it's bad luck to call ships by their names while they are under construction.

He l I picked this book up at a Scholastic book fair that was held at the school on the campus of the hospital where I work. He later finds that the cat has had kittens, so he places the kittens in a box and takes them around with him as he does his work, with following along. As the Titanic prepares to leave on its journey, Jim notices moving her kittens off the ship, hinting that perhaps she knew the voyage was ill-fated. It's a really cute story, and I liked the illustrations. And I love any story that reaffirms my belief that cats are amazing.

Especially interesting was the author's note at the end, which refers to some accounts that said that there was a cat with kittens on board the Titanic, and that the cat moved the kittens off the ship before it launched. Jun 05, Sam Cook rated it liked it Shelves: Before we read the book, students listen to a lecture given by the instructor.

This lecture will be important in making comparisons with the reading and reflection. This lesson could work great as a dual subject type lesson for that reason. So after I gave the lesson on the Titanic and how it wrecked, I would read this book. This book goes directly with that history of the Titanic and even has a short passage in it that could explain the origin of this book.

Once I read the story of "Titanicat," I would make connections afterword with the students about the history known with the Titanic and the story told. It would be interesting to know if the students really can see the truth in the story and if they believe in the story of the "Titanicat. Jan 30, David Perilo rated it really liked it Shelves: This book was fascinating and adventurous. I believe that since its pages are full of words but also great pictures this book I'd recommend it to a 3rd to 5th grade student.

The second parts I think students will enjoy are the great pictures. It looks like the pictures are from water color or paints, but some of the pictures This book was fascinating and adventurous. I honestly think this could be used in conjunction with social studies. Reading about an actual historical event but with a story inside it can be fun to work with in social studies. The students could learn about the sinking of Titanic then in small groups brainstorm some other stories that could have possibly happened on that famous voyage.

Feb 01, Alissa Anderson rated it really liked it Shelves: This book would be good for students in 3rd or 4th grade. Possibly higher level 2nd graders.