Hip History Reads -- Get the Real Story!
by Jennifer Armstrong
the ship Endurance sailed toward
Antarctica. On board the ship was Sir
Henry Shackleton. Shackleton was the
leader of an expedition team that was
going to attempt to be the first men to
cross the Antarctic continent. The
team never made it to Antarctica,
though.
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Weddell Sea. The ship was eventually crushed by the
ice and the men had to survive on the ice packs for
months. They finally made landfall on a small unihabited
island where Shackleton and five of his men made a
desperate attempt to travel 800 miles of open sea to
South Georgia Island for help in a small lifeboat. This is
one of the most amazing survival stories ever and it
really happened! This book is great and is full of
wonderful illustrations and some photographs of the
men and the Endurance. Recommended by Rachel.
by Pete Nelson
Sometimes it seems as a kid we can't
do anything to
make a difference in the world, but
that is not true at all. The story told
in Left for Dead by Pete Nelson
proves it.
in the South Pacific near the end of World War II,
the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a
Japanese submarine. Sinking in only 12 minutes,
eleven hundred men found themselves in
shark-infested waters. By the time rescuers arrived
four days later, only 317 men were left alive, making
the sinking of the Indianapolis the worst naval
disaster in American history.
The story doesn't end there, however. The navy
needed someone to blame for the disaster. They
picked the ship's captain, Charles Butler McVay III.
Captain McVay was court-martialed by the Navy
and eventually commited suicide in 1968. The
surviiving members of McVay's crew tried for many
years to clear their captain's name, but were
unsuccessful until Hunter Scott came along.
Hunter was eleven years old when he first heard of
the USS Indianapolis while watching the movie
Jaws with his father. Hunter began asking
questions about the disaster and decided that the
story would make a great subject for his history fair
project. While doing the research for his project,
Hunter became convinced that Captain McVay was
unfairly blamed for the disaster. Hunter joined the
campaign to clear the Captain's name.The story of
the Indianapolis and Hunter's campaign is told in
Pete Nelson's book Left for Dead. It's a great
story and it's all true. Recommended by Rachel for
students in grades 5 and up.
Check out the study guide and discussion
questions for this book from the publisher Random
House. For more great non-fiction stories check
out the Book Nuts' Favorite Non-fiction Informational
Books. For historical fiction set during World War II
check out the Book Nuts Historical Fiction Page.
Links of the Interest:
If you would like to learn more about the USS
Indianapolis, check out these links.
This site provides a great overview of the
Indianapolis story from
the view point of the survivors.
Discovery Channel: USS Indianpolis: The Final
Voyage
Time Line to Justice by Hunter Scott
The story of Hunter's quest in his own words.
Letters, Poems, Etc.
Letters and other writings sent home to their
families by the crew
of the Indianapolis