School Library Journal Review
Gr 4 Up-- In 1845, Sir John Franklin and his two ships, Erebus and Terror , sailed from England to begin a search in icy Arctic waters for the fabled Northwest Passage. It was one of the most well-planned, well-supplied, and well-commanded expeditions of all times; yet it ended in disaster. Not one man returned alive. For almost a century and a half, no one could explain their mysterious deaths. In this compelling, contemporary account, anthropologist Beattie and journalist Geiger describe how they solved the 147-year-old mystery. The narrative is interspersed with an imaginative section that relates the story of the expedition from the point of view of 19-year-old Luke, a member of the crew. While the text is exciting, the book's greatest strength is its superb illustrations: drawings, paintings, and historic and present day photographs are used to enrich each page. Probably the most intriguing photographs are those of the actual exhumation of three sailors whose graves had been discovered in 1857. Because of the cold, the bodies remained frozen and appeared almost exactly as they did at the time of interment. Another fine entry in an excellent series. --Don Reaber, Meadowdale High School, Lynnwood, WA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
A study of the fate, and the reasons therefore, of the lost Franklin Expedition of 1845 to find the Northwest Passage is an exciting example of anthropological, archaeological, and medical detection. As usual in this excellent series, the nonfiction narrative far exceeds the fictional reconstruction of the story in interest and liveliness. Bib. From HORN BOOK 1992, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
In 1845, famed explorer Sir John Franklin set out with two ships in search of the elusive Northwest Passage; the expedition vanished, leaving only a few artifacts and several lonely graves for subsequent searchers to find. When, 140 years later, Beattie (a forensic anthropologist) began to look into the expedition's fate and the causes of its failure, he not only uncovered evidence of cannibalism but--by temporarily opening the graves to take tissue samples--proved that some or all of the crew had ingested debilitating levels of lead from poorly tinned food. This book is a digest of Beattie and Geiger's book for adults, Frozen in Time (1987), combined with a dramatized historical reconstruction plus plenty of paintings and color photos-- including macabre photo portraits of three exhumed, startlingly well-preserved corpses. Like others in the ``Time Quest'' series: a fresh, vividly illustrated look at modern methods of archeological research. (Fiction/Nonfiction. 11-14)
Booklist Review
Gr. 4-7. The latest book in the Time Quest series ~focuses on the expedition of Sir John Franklin, which set out from England in 1845 in the ships Erebus and Terror to search for the Northwest Passage. When none of the 129 men re~turned, search parties ventured forth. Although the graves of three sailors were found on Beechey Island in 1850, many of the real discoveries about the disaster did not come to light until more than 120 years later. The authors of a best-selling adult book and television documen~tary, Frozen in Time, about the research into the Franklin voyage, Beattie and Geiger first discuss their work on Beechey Island in 1984, then slip back in time to present a fic~tional account of events preced~ing John Torring~to~n's unex~plained death, then return to the present. The text is engrossing. Readers see vividly the frozen Arctic land~scape, the problems of food, weather, clothing, illness, and danger. The thoroughness of the authors' work is impressive, includ~ing the meticu~lous mapping of the grave sites before excavating, the collecting of samples during the autopsies of the three sail~ors, and the discovery of blade marks on human bones, which supports the theory of canni~balism toward the end. This volume, an uncommon mixture of medicine, mystery, science, and seamanship, is well worth praise. A fascinating subject, deftly illuminated with a host of sharp photos, drawings, and maps. Epilogue, glossary, and chronol~ogy appended. As in all books in the series, such as Exploring the Titanic [BKL Ja 15 89], The Secrets of Vesuvius [BKL Jl 91], and The Lost Wreck of the Isis [BKL Ja 15 91], the attractive book jacket doubles as a wall poster. ~--Deborah Abbott