Archaeology, science, and an investigation combined with historical fiction keep the reader's attention throughout this text.
This is an interesting book and I will admit I was a bit confused at first. The story is of an actual account of an Arctic British expedition gone tragically wrong in 1845, told by a physical anthropologist leading his own team to the Arctic in 1984 and heading to the burial site of several sailors who perished very early in the three-year expedition of 1845. The purpose of the book, primarily, is to exhume the bodies of the three known buried sailors and gather scientific evidence, (hair, skin, and bone samples) to determine the exact causes of death.
What confused me is that after the introduction chapter, the core of the book is the backstory, friendship and untimely death of one of the sailors whom the author plans to visit. There is a dialogue between sailors, as well as thoughts and feelings between several characters so I assumed there existed a journal of some sort but after thoroughly scouring the book for a bibliography and finding none, I eventually realized the author used artistic license and told a story that was completely possible. There is a concluding chapter to help reconcile their findings, which I won't spoil for future readers.
This book is packed with realistic illustrations as well as photos of the author's two expeditions. ( )

I used it in my grade 7 Social class during our discussions on Canadian history. Great photos engaged the students. ( )

courageous men on an expidition from the northwest passage. None of these men made it home alive. ( )

This book is okay. The first few pages are great. There's a lot of information about the expedition and how the sailors might have died that would be a great addition to science classes. The middle section, however, jumps to a story of the men before setting sail and during the expedition that seems more fiction than non. The pictures are great until the book jumps stories. Because it does skip around so much, it is hard to determine what the point of the book is. I think it is to figure out how the sailors perished that were buried before the ship became encased in ice, and to find the lost expedition. I wouldn't keep this book in my classroom, but it may be good for a reference. ( )

It's great so far. It's about sir John Franklin and a great exploration. He 's crew members and him great buried in ice.