Shackleton’s Journey by William Grill – our review.
Just over a hundred years ago the adventurer and explorer Ernest Shackleton set out on his ill-fated trip to the Antarctic.
The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was Shackleton’s dream to conquer a land he described evocatively as a “region of ice and snow”.
Where he would “go on and on ’til I came to one of the poles of the Earth, the end of the axis on which this great round ball turns.”
Table of Contents
A history of Shackleton’s Journey
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By the winter of 1915 his ship Endurance was however crushed in the ice and sank leaving the crew stranded.
A two-year fight for their lives lay ahead of them braving the unforgiving elements and pushing the crew to their very limits.
The sense of adventure, bravery and resourcefulness of the crew is celebrated in this brilliant illustrated children’s book.
The book
Shackleton’s Journey by William Grill details the whole of the adventure. From funding through to the desperate attempts by Shackleton to stage a rescue of the crew.
Illustrator William Grill captures the journey with wonderful coloured pencil drawings. These are really lovely to explore.
Their simplicity is gorgeous and I love how they tell the story of the crew. Showing diagrams of the provisions, and brilliant drawings of the sea and the pack horses.
The text of the book tells of high spirits, desperate times and how resourceful the crew had to be to keep themselves alive.
The level of detail is incredible in the text. Even going as far as naming all of the dogs which were part of the crew. And ways in which the survivors passed the long days – hunting, reading and repairing their crucial kit.
Reading the book – Shackleton’s Journey by William Grill
My children really have enjoyed pouring through the book. And while it’s great to dip into to look at the illustrations, it works really well as a sixty-page novel.
The pace rattles along and really embraces the storytelling.
Cleverly telling the real-life tale and depicting the adventure in a very engaging way.
It’s aimed at children aged between seven and eleven. It is put together in such a way that it’s easy to read with short paragraphs broken up with multiple images.
This book is a real joy, incredibly informative and tells how even in desperate times there was a strong desire to keep going.
As Shackleton said, “I chose life over death for myself and my friends….the only true failure would be to not explore at all”.
You can find out more about Shackleton’s Journey and pick up your own copy here –
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What a fantastic book. I will need to look into getting this
I think the illustrations really bring the story to life. An incredible true life tale.
What an interesting book, love the illustrations.
This looks fabulous, I know the older kids in school are studying Shackleton at the moment
Oh what a fab book. This is the sort of book my boys love
That looks really interesting and a book that I know my 10 year old would love x
ooooh, this looks great, i will have a look now. x