Capsized! : the forgotten story of the SS Eastland disaster / Patricia Sutton.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

New York Public Library's "100 Best Books for Kids"

Kirkus Reviews' "Best Books of 2018"



2019 Society of Midland Authors Literary Award Honoree



2019 Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People List



2019 Cybils Literary Award Winner



A 2019 Cooperative Children's Book Center's Choice



Wisconsin Writers Contest 2018 Winner of the Tofte/Wright Children's Literary Award



On July 24, 1915, the SS Eastland , filled to capacity with 2,500 passengers and crew, capsized in the Chicago River while still moored to the pier. Happy picnic-goers headed for an employee outing across Lake Michigan suddenly found themselves in a struggle for their lives. Trapped belowdecks, crushed by the crowds attempting to escape the rising waters, or hurled into the river from the upper deck of the ship, roughly one-third of the passengers, mostly women and children, perished that day.

The Eastland disaster took more passenger lives than the Titanic and stands today as the greatest loss of life on the Great Lakes. Capsized! details the events leading up to the fateful day and provides a nail-biting, minute-by-minute account of the ship's capsizing. From the courage of the survivors to the despair of families who lost loved ones, author Patricia Sutton brings to light the stories of ordinary working people enduring the unthinkable.

Capsized! also raises critical-thinking questions for young readers: Why do we know so much about the Titanic 's sinking yet so little about the Eastland disaster? What causes a tragedy to be forgotten and left out of society's collective memory? And what lessons from this disaster might we be able to apply today?

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Main Characters (p. xi)
• Prologue (p. xiii)
• 1 Summer Wouldn't Be Summer Without the Picnic (p. 1)
• 2 Fellowship at Work and Home (p. 13)
• 3 Greyhound of the Lakes (p. 21)
• 4 Like a Pendulum Swinging (p. 37)
• 5 Stand By! Ready for Departure! (p. 49)
• 6 Forty-Five Degrees (p. 57)
• 7 Rescue and Recovery (p. 79)
• 8 Eighty-Five in Each Row (p. 99)
• 9 Buried Memories (p. 107)
• Epilogue (p. 123)
• Author's Note (p. 131)
• Acknowledgments (p. 135)
• Notes (p. 137)
• Bibliography (p. 145)
• Image Credits (p. 149)
• Index (p. 151)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

School Library Journal Review

Gr 5-8-When the SS Eastland capsized in the Chicago River on July 24, 1915, 844 people lost their lives. This is a higher number than those killed in the sinking of the Titanic and is still the largest loss of life on the Great Lakes. Sutton takes readers through a detailed time line that follows several of the people who were onboard that day. The book has a large cast of characters; fortunately, there is a list at the beginning to assist readers. Not all of those profiled survived, but the text handles the deaths with a matter-of-fact grace. The information is presented in a factual manner, diffusing some of the feelings of horror that might be associated with the tragedy. Filled with photographs, documents, and diagrams, this title is a very thorough account of the disaster, and all of the dialogue is from reliable sources. VERDICT Libraries that serve students fascinated with the Titanic or Ruta Sepetys's Salt to the Sea will want to add this book to their collections.-V. Lynn Christiansen, Wiley International Studies Magnet Elementary School, Raleigh, NC © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

A lesser-known shipwreck comes vividly to life in this slim volume about the SS Eastland. The passenger liner was already a little top-heavy when it was built, but throw in some extra lifeboats on the top deck, finicky ballast pumps, and a huge crowd of picnic-goers headed to the beach across the lake from Chicago, and the Eastland became downright dangerous. Sutton homes in on several families and individuals who were on the boat when it tipped over in the Chicago River in 1915, killing 844 people, and offers a tense, minute-by-minute report of both the circumstances leading up to the disaster and the harrowing rescue aftermath. The narrative-driven account, filled with quotes from individuals and newspapers, historical photos, and trial transcripts, is engaging and accessible, and an author's note considers why the Eastland disaster isn't better known. Questions of accountability encourage critical thinking: Was the captain responsible? The engineer? The shipbuilder? Extensive source notes, which account for every quote, as well as a bibliography, round out this informative, engrossing title.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2018 Booklist

Horn Book Review

Sutton offers a vivid, detailed account of how and why the SS Eastland capsized on the Chicago River's bank in summer 1915. The cargo-turned-pleasure boat, carrying 2,500 (mainly immigrant) employees of Western Electric, sank before departing for a company picnic. In short, dynamic chapters enhanced with archival photographs, the straightforward text reflects on the disaster's obscurity relative to its contemporary, the Titanic. Bib., ind. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

On the morning of July 24, 1915, the 2,500 passengers aboard the excursion ship SS Eastland were looking forward to a pleasant outing at a Lake Michigan destination but instead found disaster.In a tautly written, vividly detailed, suspenseful narrative, Sutton chronicles the event that stands today as the greatest loss of life on the Great Lakes. From the time of the Eastland's launch in 1903, design flaws making her susceptible to listing were known though kept quiet by the company that owned it. The ship was top-heavy, which became evident when passengers congregated on the upper decks. Several incidents in the intervening years indicated the Eastland was destined for catastrophe. It occurred when the ship was chartered to take employees and their families from Western Electric Company's Hawthorne Works to a picnic in Michigan City, Indiana. This was a major event for the workers, most of whom were first- and second-generation Polish and Czech immigrants and could not take holidays. The Eastland capsized in the Chicago River while still moored to the pier. Seventy percent of the 844 passengers and crew who perished were under the age of 25. Sutton raises several provocative questions: Why is so much known about the Titanic's sinking and yet so little about the Eastland disaster? Why was no one ever held responsible for this catastrophe? Her fast-paced account makes ample use of primary sources, plaiting them into her narrative naturally as dialogue.A true disaster story rivetingly told. (maps, photo, diagrams, source notes, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 10-14) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.