Capsized!: The Forgotten Story of the SS Eastland Disaster

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New York Public Library's "100 Best Books for Kids"
Kirkus Reviews' "Best Books of 2018"

2019 Society of Midland Authors Literary Award Honoree

2019Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People List

2019Cybils Literary Award Winner

A 2019 Cooperative Children's Book Center's Choice

Wisconsin Writers Contest 2018Winner oftheTofte/Wright Childrens Literary Award

On July 24, 1915, the SSEastland, 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.
TheEastlanddisaster took more passenger lives than theTitanicand 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

Author Bio

Clay and Pat Sutton are veteran birders and longtime residents of Cape May County. Pat is program director at the New Jersey Audubon Society's Cape May Bird Observatory.