Oh, it was sad.

Today marks the one hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. There have been many books published on this events in preparation for this. Here are several of the many title I have come across. And if you are my age and went to summer camp stop singing "Oh, they built the ship Titanic" to yourself. You know you are!

Lorbiecki, Marybeth. Escaping Titanic.

This picture book version of the events centers around the real person Ruth Becker who was sailing with her mother and two younger siblings. Ruth's mother is frightened the whole time they are on the boat, but when a porter knocks on their door in the middle of the night with the news that something is wrong but will be fixed, she doesn't immediately dress the children and get them on deck. They do go eventually, and all of them narrowly get on life boats. They are separated, but everyone survives and they are reunited in the end. This would be a good read aloud to younger students who have heard of the event but don't need to know all of the gruesome details.

Brezenoff, Steve. Return to Titanic.

Published by Stone Arch Books, E ARC from Netgalley.com

Tucker and Maya have to spend a boring day in his mother's museum helping to set up a Titanic exhibit. Neither of them are all that interested even though an ancestor of Tucker's was on the ship. When the two are looking at artifacts, they both pick up a ticket... and are sent back in time to the Titanic! They try to stop Tucker's ancestor from getting on but are unsuccessful, so board themselves. Will they be able to make any changes in the outcome of this epic disaster? Book one of a series.

Weaknesses: I can't sell time travel at all in my library, and since these books for younger readers tend to be pricey, I won't be buying them.Strengths: Great, easy to read story for stronger readers than Magic Tree House fans. I liked the time travel technique and the graphic set up of the book.

Lawson, Julie. Ghosts of the Titanic.

When Kevin finds out that he has to travel to Halifax from British Columbia because his father has inherited a house from Angus Seaton, he is not happy and starts to act up in school. When his class is preparing to visit a Titanic exhibition, he gets in trouble for singing... the Titanic song! Seaton turns out to be a crewman on the Mackay-Bennet and helped retrieve bodies after the ship went down, helping to identify the bodies before giving them a burial at sea. Chapters then alternate between Seaton and Kevin-- Seaton went slightly mad, and Kevin is also haunted by the ghost of Annie, who claims that something was stolen from her young son, Michael. Kevin travels back in time and tries to save Annie, but is only successful in saving Michael. What is the family connection, and why did Annie haunt both Kevin and Angus?
Strengths: The information about the retrieval of the bodies is something that I have not read, and credit has to be given to Lawson for acknowledging that awful song!

Weaknesses: Kevin is not a likeable character, and the haunting is slightly far-fetched.