Personal rule: a book that starts with a map is going to be great. Trapped in Terror Bay is no exception to that rule, although it takes some skill and attention to navigate, much like the poor sailors on the lost Franklin expedition to the Arctic. Written almost in the style of a choose-your-own-adventure, this non-fiction book puts the reader in the doomed shoes of Captain Francis Crozier, sailing through imagined accounts of events onboard the ship, tracking the voyage across the Atlantic, around Greenland and eventually into the maze of ice and islands between the North American continent and the North Pole. As weather worsens, disease rampages, and nature triumphs over the technology of 1848, the reader explores this tragedy and its mystery in short, engaging chapters.

Within each chapter are subsections that include modern forensic research into the expedition, sidebars about characters, politics, nautical technology, and knowledge from the native peoples who have lived on the Arctic ice since time immemorial.

It took me a while for me to notice subtle changes in fonts, page color or border, or headings to denote these different sections, but once I did I read this like a textbook, skipping around to follow the parts I was interested in, then doubling back to read the sidebars that explained something in the main storyline. With that in mind, this is a great book to teach some textbook reading skills. Readers will love the inevitable doom, perfectly captured by the author, the fascinating facts and insights into life in the mid-1800’s, and the modern quest to understand the events of the past.

The centuries old question of what happened to the “Franklin Expedition” plagues scientists, historians and explorers as they work together to try and determine what happened in “Terror Bay.’
The author provides maps, charts, primary sources, photographs along with a table of contents, index, subject headings and side notes to provide a wealth of information to the reader. The unique format of setting up the story and then following the evidence and the stories of those who tried to rescue and later salvage the remains of the ships and crew as they try to solve the mystery of what happened. The author also provides forensic tasks for the reader to put them in the story. Readers in grades 4-6 who love forensics and solving mysteries will love this title. ( )

Mixing imagination and history, the author reconstructs the famous Franklin expedition using three types of story-telling. 1) Each chapter opens with the imagined thoughts of Francis Crozier, one of the officers, and this is aimed at a younger teenage audience. 2) Forensic puzzles and discoveries are presented in sidebars and parallel stories with some relation to the expedition’s mystery. 3) Each fictional introduction is followed by an historical narrative using literary techniques, such as dramatic foreshadowing. The book is well served with lavish illustrations, recommended resources, and an impressive index, although some of the historical maps are frustratingly small. The reader is pulled from one level to another, and is often sidetracked into other stories, giving the book a scrapbook or internet feel. The publisher is right to recommend the book to grades 7-11. Some teens will love it. I, however, found the writing too disjointed to be satisfying.

Reviewed by Paul Laverdure
Edited by Thien Sa Hoang