Very interesting exploration of the trGedy. Author introduces the characters, unleashes the crisis and then takes you through who survive s and who doesn't. Not sure why it is written as a "children's " book, identifying charred corpses seems. Bit much , would have. Thought young adult anyway,but a good read even for full Dults ( )

A nonfiction book on the 1917 Halifax explosion, geared toward middle grade.
An interesting account of the event, and although I would have liked a bit more detail, I think it is perfectly done for its intended audience. ( )

On Dec 6, 1917, there was an explosion in the Halifax Harbour. Around 2000 people were killed and many more injured.

This book is aimed toward younger readers, but I found it a good introduction. There are also plenty of archival photos included. The author decided to tell the stories of a few specific families – to follow what happened to the people in those families, what they were doing at the time, etc. I do think this makes the book more “relatable”.

I did know of the explosion, but this is the first I’ve read about it, to really get more info/details on it. I already have other books on my tbr about the topic, as well. I thought this book was very well done. (Hate to say I “really liked” a book about a disaster, though I’m sure I have before!) ( )

My blog post about this book is at this link. ( )

This was well done. I had not heard about this disaster before Julia chose an article about it as a feature for her Clickbait! last year, which was the 100th anniversary of the explosion. She mentioned this book in her post, so I requested it from the library, and I'm glad I did. Walker writes for the middleschool crowd, I am guessing, but it does not lesson the impact of this story. In fact, it makes it the perfect introduction to the incident. She includes lots of maps, photos, and diagrams, making it easy to follow the action and to identify with the victims. What happened is that through a series of miscommunications and bad decision making, two ships collided in the Narrows section of the Halifax Harbour on December 6, 1917. Because we were in the midst of WWI, one of the ships was loaded with munitions but not identified as such because that would be like painting a target on the side of it. The other ship was loaded with relief supplies. Because no one in the town knew about the dangerous cargo, the townspeople ran towards the ship wreck, not away from it. One fact that stuck with me is that "it was the largest manmade explosion that had ever occurred. It remained so until August 6, 1945, when the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, during WWII." Staggering. The explosion caused a shockwave and a tsunami, resulting in further death and devastation. As if that were not enough chaos, the very next day there was a blizzard.

Walker does an excellent job of filling in the blanks - she starts before the explosion, giving us a background of the town and its inhabitants, then leads us up to and through the events. It's an amazing story, and part of what got to me was that there were so many survivors left with lifetime mysteries about what happened to their loved ones. Homes were destroyed, bodies were burned too badly to be recognized and identified, many babies that survived but had been separated from their families were difficult to identify.

The depth of the devastation meant that survivors needing medical attention were sent wherever there was room for them, making it hard for loved ones to reunite with them. Heartbreaking. It's an amazing story, and Walker does a very good job of disseminating the available information into a thoughtful narrative. Highly recommended, but keep in mind that it was written for a younger audience. ( )