Product Description

During an expedition to Antarctica in 1915, Ernest Shackleton's ship, Endurance, became trapped in the ice. Shackleton and his men set out on a desperate journey to save themselves. One of the greatest survival stories of all time is captured in a thrilling illustrated account for young readers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1468327 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-01
• Released on: 1999-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 64 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8-One of several recent titles about the explorer and his ill-fated expedition to Antarctica, this generously illustrated volume focuses on the man rather than the expedition. Shackleton's life is traced from his early childhood to his death en route to another Antarctic voyage. Readers learn how he went to sea at an early age, and how his hunger for adventure and interest in exploring developed. It is not surprising that the author devotes a great deal of attention to Shackleton's Endurance expedition. Unfortunately, that amazing story has already been told several times in more compelling narratives, most notably in Jennifer Armstrong's Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World (Crown, 1998). The stunning, archival black-and-white photographs are this book's strength, but there is little new information here. Libraries already owning other books on Shackleton and the Endurance may also want to have this one as a starting place for readers. It tells enough about the man and his adventures to whet the appetite for deeper reading on the subject.
Edward Sullivan, New York Public Library
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Kostyal has written a tight, bracing biography of the renowned Antarctic explorer, illustrated with dramatic black-and-white photographs. Shackleton, a man whose sense of romance and adventure repeatedly drew him from conventional British society to Antarctica (``that lonely, windswept desert of ice and snow at the bottom of the world''), succeeded neither in reaching the South Pole nor traversing the continent, but he exhibited such remarkable valor that, according to the author, his name has become ``synonymous with bravery and endurance.'' As usual, there is more about his expeditions than the man, but Kostyal renders the tale in vivid prose that is enhanced by maps, quotes, a timeline and some remarkable photographs. This quality book will be a useful addition in both home and school libraries. (map, chronology, index) (Biography. 8-10) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

A Classroom Assessment of Trail by Fire: A Photobiography
In searching for an additional reference material for a classroom unit on Sir Ernest Shackleton's journey to Antarctica in 1914, and planning on using photography as a middle school classroom project, the book Trail by Fire: A Photobiography of Sir Ernest Shackleton caught my attention. Photobiographies can have deep impacts on students with the plethora of pictures to help them absorb a great amount of information quickly for research purposes. The story itself fascinates, but the addition of Frank Hurley's fabulous black and white pictures astonishes. K.M.Kostyal succeeds by providing excellent text to accompany the photographs: concise, easy to understand, good context definitions of new vocabulary for those unfamiliar with ships and Antarctic travel, and neatly bracketed around Hurley's works. The addition of Shackleton's quotes to introduce sections is very powerful. For many students, just reading the captions to the photographs will open new thinking about the trials Shackleton's crew faced while trying to reach first one goal, then another, which eventually was to just survive in the freezing, punishing elements. If there is one criticism for this book, it is with the map. First it is located at the end of the book, when it would serve the reader better to be either first, or near the beginning. Secondly, it has few of the places mentioned in the text, and I found myself having to refer to a more detailed map from another source to find all the places Kostyal includes. Coming under the umbrella of the National Geographic Society as it does, this is curious. But map critique aside, this book will provide my students with an excellent model for their own personal photobiographies as well as assist them in researching Shackleton's incredible Antarctic sojourn. Well done, K.M. Kostyal!