I Survived The Sinking of The Titanic 1912, the graphic novel sails strong

If your elementary school is anything like ours then the I Survived series of books by Lauren Tarshis is a hot commodity. The stories blend non-fiction events as they would’ve been viewed by a kid who lived through them. Educators love the books because they engage kids with non-fiction elements and kids love them because they have characters that they can relate to.  Until now, the I Survived series have been books with a couple of illustrations. This graphic novel, by definition, is going to speak to that audience that likes things in a more visual format.

Shortly into I Survived, The Graphic Novel, I found myself mentally asking how they found such in-depth information about George. He’s the main character, a nine-year old boy who is on The Titanic with his sister Phoebe and their aunt, Mrs. Key. The three of them had dinner with Mr. Andrews the other night. At first George thought that he was just trying to endear himself to his aunt, but it turned out that he had more of a back story. Mr. Andrews was the designer of the ship and he gladly shares the blueprints of The Titanic to the kids.

It’s a story that you want to believe isn’t it? However, just like the I Survived books, they take real events and place fictional characters in them in order to drive home the story. This graphic novel stays very close to the story that readers have enjoyed with the I Survived book series. It’s very detailed, perhaps even more so than the book series because of the art work.

The art in the graphic novel is by Haus Studio and is stunning in its depth. The scope of the waves once the lifeboats are in the ocean is massive and you get a scale of the terror that those who abandoned ship possibly felt. The human elements, such as the subtle facial expressions as various people on the ship help say the things that aren’t acknowledged by the written words.

I Survived, The Graphic Novel will appeal to those middle elementary school audiences that might be intimidated by the book series of the same name. Ironically, because it’s a graphic novel, the book will skew older than its book series. The text in this graphic novel is such that an 8 year-old should be able to read most of it by themselves. With luck Tarshis, Haus Studio and Graphix will convert some of the other I Survived books to this format also.