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Rating: 
Summary: A well done book
Review: Bringing the excitement of this amazing story to younger readers Armstrong does a good job of telling an exciting story. Avoiding the traps of many non-fiction writers for children she does not talk down to her audience and presents a book that should be equally thrilling for adults and children. This book is the telling of the amazing story of Shackleton and his 27 person crew, who were stranded in Antarctic circle for a year, that if it were fiction no one would believe all of the against the odds sucesses the crew had. While the depth of her research is poor this is still a book that a wide variety of reads, adult or child, would enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: From the first introductory word, this book had us. I read Armstrong's account to my 10-year-old son and we both loved it. I have to force him to go to bed at night, but for the time we read about Shackleton, I stayed up with him. Not only is the book a true nonfiction page-turner, but it also made me very aware of my own softness before such, well, endurance. I can think of worse models for my son than these strong, determined, organized, and civil men. Only read it to your kids if you want the stars in their eyes to give guidance and force, to shine out in the night with old heroic force and English fortitude. After reading the book, I think I approve of those things despite the pompous high-born generals in ostrich plumes pictured from the war during those same years. It's worth your time -- and the time to read it with your 10-16 year old if you're not already too late. And you're not.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing story! I couldn't stop reading it!
Review: I began reading this book while quite tired one evening, but found I couldn't put it down! Shackleton and his crew find themselves in one horrible predicament after another, yet all 28 men manage to miraculously survive! The photographs from the original voyage are incredible! A definite must read!
Rating:
Summary: This book deserves 1000 stars!
Review: I cannot tell you how fascinating this book was to me. I don't think I have ever read a book so fast. Very good I encourage anyone to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Great true story!
Review: The expedition of 1914, just as The War to End All Wars broke out, of Sir Ernest Shackleton & his crew who sailed from England intending to cross Antarctica from one side to the other. What they in fact did after the Endurance froze over & sank, has gone into the annals of epic human effort. In the face of crushing odds they all survived 19 months without contact with the outside world. Rebeccasreads highly recommends SHIPWRECK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD for everyone, not just 10 year olds!
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Read!!------with one caveat
Review: The tale of Ernest Shackleton and crew and their ill-fated South Pole expedition is an incredible one indeed. This version of that journey is spell-binding and certainly piques interest and anticipation. While Armstrong's "Shipwreck..." is basically an older children's book, it is great for adults as well. [Reviewer's note: The book "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage" by Alfred Lansing provides a much more detailed version of this journey.] The photographs are bountiful and certainly contribute to the eerie realism of the challenges faced by this crew, vividly relaying the desperation of their predicament. I was disturbed, however, by the author's commentary in one of the photo captions (see page 38 of the September 2000 paperback edition) where she takes extreme journalistic liberty regarding the early-century comedy practice, "blackface". Armstrong's thinly-veiled 'mini' "civil rights" commentary there is totally unnecessary and unprofessional. Her assertion does, however, illustrate the ease at which historical revisionism exerts itself. Such journalistic hubris reminds me of what Wrangler (Jean Company)did a few years ago in a sales advertisement when they air-brushed the cigarettes from the mouths of cowboys in a well-known, c. 1800's historical portrait. While it benefited them (Wrangler)to use the rugged "realism" of these cowboys, the "realism" of the current times (ie., anti-smoking) was not allowed---selective "truth", if you will (a Stalinesque technique). Only the politically correct version of history allowed here!
Rating:
Summary: Non-fiction perfection
Review: There was a spate of Shackleton books, documentaries, and films not too long ago following the events of September 11, 2001. During that time, people couldn't get enough of the story of a man facing ridiculously insurmountable odds to save his men and return home from the Antarctic. Preceeding this surge in Shackleton love, this book appeared in 1998 and tells the story perfectly. I must admit that I fell in love with this book. Armstrong is a master here, breaking the monotony of the months the men spent waiting for the Endurance to be free from the ice flows by telling about the crew's practical jokes and games. The author is careful to include photographs only as they occur in the text. At the beginning of the trip, the ship's photographer takes a great many shots of life with the crew. Towards the end, photos are few and far between. In some books for children, this might be a huge drawback. Here, it works exceedingly well. The text grows more and more interesting as the photos diminish. I belive that if the author did not say right from the beginning that Shackleton and every single member of this crew survived, this book might be impossible to continue reading. The notes in the back are of some help, and the photos of the crew members are useful. What makes this book stands out is that it captures a group of people doing work that they are exceedingly good at. It is very satisfying to read about accomplished individuals. This book might or might not read well to children. I don't know how well it would do. Still, I would recommend it to anyone and pair it with books of fiction and non-fiction that deal with the Antarctic or exploration. The fact that this book wasn't given so much as a Newberry honor is an appalling fact.
Rating:
Summary: Non-fiction perfection
Review: There was a spate of Shackleton books, documentaries, and films not too long ago following the events of September 11, 2001. During that time, people couldn't get enough of the story of a man facing ridiculously insurmountable odds to save his men and return home from the Antarctic. Preceeding this surge in Shackleton love, this book appeared in 1998 and tells the story perfectly. I must admit that I fell in love with this book. Armstrong is a master here, breaking the monotony of the months the men spent waiting for the Endurance to be free from the ice flows by telling about the crew's practical jokes and games. The author is careful to include photographs only as they occur in the text. At the beginning of the trip, the ship's photographer takes a great many shots of life with the crew. Towards the end, photos are few and far between. In some books for children, this might be a huge drawback. Here, it works exceedingly well. The text grows more and more interesting as the photos diminish. I belive that if the author did not say right from the beginning that Shackleton and every single member of this crew survived, this book might be impossible to continue reading. The notes in the back are of some help, and the photos of the crew members are useful. What makes this book stands out is that it captures a group of people doing work that they are exceedingly good at. It is very satisfying to read about accomplished individuals. This book might or might not read well to children. I don't know how well it would do. Still, I would recommend it to anyone and pair it with books of fiction and non-fiction that deal with the Antarctic or exploration. The fact that this book wasn't given so much as a Newberry honor is an appalling fact.
Rating:
Summary: An incredible, horrifying, and amazing trip
Review: This 1999 winner of the Orbis Pictus Award (given for outstanding nonfiction for children) is a detailed and well-researched account of Sir Ernest Shackleton's incredible 1914-1916 voyage to Antarctica. Jennifer Armstrong does an excellent job of creating interest all through the book, sharing interesting details about what the men ate, and the games and activities they use to passed the time. The book includes many photographs taken by the photographer on the expedition, giving a sense of realism and immediacy. The author follows Shackleton's trip from England to South Georgia Island, then the failed attempt to get to the Antarctic continent. The ship becomes stuck in ice, but the ice migrates, moving the Endurance further north, toward the open ocean. Before they reach the sea the ice crushes the ship, forcing the men to abandon it. It is after the sinking of the Endurance that the narrative gets so exciting that the book is impossible to put down. The reader reads with growing horror of the crew's travail across the ice and out to tiny, barren Elephant Island. When it seems that the men can't possibly have anything worse ahead of them, Shackleton and five men sail a small lifeboat eight hundred miles back to South Georgia Island. Armstrong's description of the harrowing fifteen days spent in the lifeboat holds the reader in a vise-like grip. She winds down the tension with a very satisfying epilogue relating what the crewmembers did with the rest of their lives. The captioned photograph at the end of the book showing the entire crew shortly after their return to civilization is a perfect touch.
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