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Variety is a hallmark of Deborah Hopkinson's work for young readers. She's written novels, picture books, biographies, and historical nonfiction, and each have been lauded as quality literature. But it was Titanic: Voices From the Disaster that earned Deborah Hopkinson a Sibert Honor as one of "the most distinguished informational" books of 2012, cementing her status as a premier children's nonfiction author. Ms. Hopkinson elaborated on aspects of the Titanic tragedy that aren't always noted, scrutinizing the sequence of events on as detailed a level as I've read. What oversights and brash dismissals of common sense were responsible for the grandest ship ever to sail the open seas sinking on its maiden voyage, an occasion that should have been triumphant but ended with the deaths of 1,496 passengers? Was it an unavoidable twist of fate, a sobering reminder that the natural world is big and dangerous and no manmade construct can withstand its wrath, or could the mess have been avoided if key figures had performed their jobs properly? Titanic: Voices From the Disaster examines these storylines and more, attempting to portray the mammoth scope of the tragedy and how it affected many thousands of people connected to those onboard the Titanic. The shockwaves of this incident would reach every corner of the globe.

"Maybe the Titanic makes us all historians. We can't help being curious: What happened? Why? Who said what and when? What did it mean? And, of course, what if?"

�Titanic: Voices From the Disaster, from the Foreword

It took years of innovative, ambitious design and round-the-clock labor to build the RMS Titanic, the White Star Line's superstar luxury ship. It was safer, more elegant, and much larger than any other boat, a veritable hotel on water that catered to the wealthiest magnates and poor immigrants at the same time. It was three mega ocean liners in one, its first-class, second-class, and third-class areas designed to function as separate worlds. The White Star Line couldn't have been prouder of their signature seacraft, and with great fanfare the Titanic embarked on its debut, sailing from Belfast to Southampton to Cherbourg and on to New York City. People had booked passage on the Titanic for any number of reasons, but all anticipated a smooth, safe journey to the New World on the most modern of seafaring vehicles.

Though built for comfort more than speed, the Titanic moved at a fast clip once it gained momentum on the Atlantic, and was ahead of schedule when warnings started coming from other ships that they were in an area dotted with icebergs. The Titanic had long been touted as indestructible, so the captain and other top officers didn't take the warnings seriously, maintaining only standard precautions against dangerous ice. When the lookout spotted an iceberg jutting from the water directly ahead, he alerted the captain at once, but it was too late to steer the massive Titanic away from the sharp mound of ice. A mortal wound was dealt the ship's underbelly, and seawater gushed into several boiler rooms. Though the passengers and most of the crew remained unaware that anything was seriously wrong, the fantastic ship was already doomed.

As the Titanic took on water and it dawned on the crew that they were only hours from sinking to the bottom of the ocean, they notified passengers and led an exodus to the lifeboats. Unfortunately, there weren't nearly enough seats in the boats for everyone. The Titanic had set sail without a comprehensive emergency protocol in place, and more than a thousand lives stood to be lost unless the radio operators could hail a ship to rush to their aid within a few hours. Urgent dispatches were sent to the Carpathia and Californian, but only the former immediately received the call and set out to the Titanic's coordinates. Onboard the sinking vehicle, women and children were given priority placement in lifeboats, but evacuation was disorganized and inefficient. By now the Titanic was obviously in trouble, listing noticeably as water filled its lower compartments and rose through the opulent interior. People grew desperate for lifeboat berths as the Titanic dipped lower in the water, but few were available. At approximately 2:20 A.M., with the Carpathia still many miles away, the Titanic finally sank beneath the frigid waves of the Atlantic as hundreds of disbelieving survivors watched, both in lifeboats and treading water. When the Carpathia arrived hours later, most people not in lifeboats had frozen and slipped to the depths of the quiet sea, but hundreds in lifeboats were pulled aboard the Carpathia and ministered to as they recovered from the shock of the past several hours. The tragedy and the stories surrounding it captured public interest and would continue to hold it for more than a hundred years, the legend only growing of the floating palace that sank supposedly due to the hubris of the men in charge. The Titanic was not invincible, but its legacy turned out to be. And so did the legacies of those who survived the tragedy and were associated with it for the rest of their days, living relics of a historic night that has much to teach about human frailty, lest we arrogantly forget it.

Titanic: Voices From the Disaster is nowhere near as emotional as the best fiction set on the Titanic (Yes, I'm thinking of James Cameron's 1997 movie, probably the best film I ever saw), but Deborah Hopkinson sure did her research. Human interest episodes mingle with the timeline of the sinking to give multiple perspectives on the disaster, and that's an indispensable part of this book. Without understanding who the world lost that night, we'd have little reason to care. Being introduced to a few of the people who died, getting to know them and what they were like, allows us sorrow over their deaths. And the story of the Titanic still isn't truly over. There will always be mysteries around the ill-fated voyage, ones that diligent historians may eventually solve and ones that are irretrievably lost to the past. We never tire of looking back on that night, so the Titanic lives on. I rate this book two and a half stars, and commend Deborah Hopkinson for a solid historical piece. Every kid fascinated by the Titanic should pick up a copy of this book.