The Watch That Ends The Night: Voices From The Titanic
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The Watch That Ends The Night: Voices From The Titanic
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4.22 of 5 stars
Arrogance and innocence, hubris and hope--twenty-four haunting voices of the Titanic tragedy, as well as the iceberg itself, are evoked in a stunni... read full description

reviews

Dec 09, 2011
Kellee rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Complete review at: http://www.teachmentortexts.com/2011/09/...

Told from 24 different perspectives in multiple genres such as verse, letters, undertaker's notes, telegrams, forms and booklets, this harrowing tale takes the reader through the journey that different people took on the Titanic. The points of view range from workers like lookouts and stokers, 3rd class passengers like an immigrant and refugee, 2nd class passengers like a tailor, 1st class passengers like a millionaire and More...
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Oct 12, 2011
Teresa Rolfe rated it: 5 of 5 stars
An enthralling read. I am amazed by a mind that can structure such an ambitious undertaking as a novel in verse from the voices of various people that came together to sail to America on the maiden voyage of the Titanic. A different style is used for each voice, even the ship's rat, revealing the lives and the desires of those on board through a cohesive tale of interweaving stories. The iceberg is a character with a motivation, and the verse in the iceberg's voice is quite special with a partic More...
1 comment like (2 people liked it)
Jan 25, 2012
Tim rated it: 2 of 5 stars
Novels in verse, done well, are rare.
And I can show you why…
This is not a poem simply because I say it is.
It is not a poem because I split
A sentence between several lines
.............Or finger the tab key
...................Artfully.
This is not a poem, no not a poem,
Because I repeat a phrase here and there.
This is not a poem because from time to time
I toss in a tired end rhyme
Or use funky punctuation—
To highlight a clause.
More...
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Jan 19, 2012
Sylvia rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Allan Wolf's novel The Watch That Ends The Night is an amazing piece of work. I've been a Titanic wonk for years, ever since learning about it in grade school. It's such a powerful, poignant story, and in Wolf's hands it takes on new life. Wolf tells the story in verse, encompassing the thoughts and feelings of twenty-four characters, including the iceberg and a rat aboard ship. I've been reading about Titanic for decades, but this is the first time I got a sense of the stories across ALL the cl More...
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Dec 28, 2011
Mark rated it: 5 of 5 stars
"Captain Larnder whispers respectfully, 'And so we begin.'

I turn again to the far-off flock of gulls -
smudges of white floating on the green waves -
and I admit to myself what I knew at the first sight of them:

Those are no seagulls at all. Those are bodies.

More bodies. Each one waiting in a bright white vest.
My God. My God. My God.
Bodies scattered for miles, in every direction.
Bodies as far as my indifferent eyes can see."

More...
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Dec 25, 2011
Barbara rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Stunning in its scope and moving in its use of 24 different voices, including a rat that scurries across the pages and through the ship, as well as different formats, including letters, notes, telegrams, hymns, internal dialogue, and Morse Code, this book makes it seem as though the Titanic just set sail rather than having embarked on its brief but eventful voyage almost 100 years ago. Although it took me awhile to get drawn into the story because so many different individuals were being introdu More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Nov 30, 2011
Dolores rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Incredible research and the free verse form combine to put the reader squarely on the deck of the doomed Titanic. You feel the excitement and the hype as the ship prepares to launch; the luxury, pomp and pageantry of the voyage and the growing tension as telegraph after telegraph arrive warning the ship of ice ahead. Of course the ship sails on blithely unaware of the doom that awaits. The characters in the book are real people, and Wolf lets us know when he is inventing and embellishing events. More...
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Nov 05, 2011
Richie rated it: 5 of 5 stars
27 October 2011 THE WATCH THAT ENDS THE NIGHT: VOICES FROM THE TITANIC by Allan Wolf, Candlewick, October 2011, 480p., ISBN: 978-0-7636-3703-3

"...and here she is folks - the USS Titanic!
She's lined up beside two hundred and fifty parkin' meters
and the Captain's getting' done ready to split 'cause he run outta dimes.
-- Jamie Brockett, "The Legend of the U.S.S. Titanic" (1969)

"Wednesday, April 10, 1912
E.J. Smith The Captain More...
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Oct 20, 2011
Paige Y. rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Like many people, there was a time in which I was fascinated by the Titanic. Between the movie, the books, and all of television documentaries, there was a lot to feed my obsession. I did eventually become over-saturated with Titanic facts and was ready to move on to other things. 2012, however, marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the sinking and I’m sure there will be a lot of books and new tv specials about it. The Watch that Ends the Night is the first book I’ve read about Titanic in More...
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Sep 23, 2011
Wandering rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Everyone knows the story of the sinking of the Titanic, but now you can hear the story in a thoroughly unique way. In the voices of Captain Smith, the lookout, the wireless man, J. J. Astor, a Lebanese immigrant girl, the undertaker who comes to recover the bodies, and many more, characters tell their stories as the Titanic makes its first and only journey.

This was certainly an interesting read. What I found most interesting was getting to hear about things from the perspectives of More...
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Feb 17, 2012
Ed rated it: 5 of 5 stars
So much has been written about the Titanic, it's hard to imagine an author finding a fresh perspective but Allan Wolf pulls it off and quite brilliantly. The voices of the captain, crew members, passengers from all three class, the shipboard rats, the embalmer searching for bodies floating among the wreckage, and even the iceberg are brought vividly to life in verse. Like his New Found Land, this is unique, engrossing historical fiction.
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Feb 19, 2012
Susan rated it: 5 of 5 stars
This original novel looks at the story of Titanic from the point of view of many passengers and crew - and even that of the iceberg itself. Written in verse, this novel takes us from the Titanic preparing to sail, all the way to the undertaker sent to collect and identify the bodies. We see Captain Smith sneer as Astor boards with his young wife, witness a young refugee find love for the first time, see friendships form and children dream. However, we can also see the Marconi warnings appear, More...
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Sep 03, 2011
Ellen rated it: 5 of 5 stars
24 voices chronicle the sole voyage of the Titanic including those of the iceberg and the ship's rat. The resulting emotional power is astonishing given that the ship sank nearly one hundred years ago and has been the stuff of legend ever since. Novels in verse are popular with young adults and this one will not disappoint. The speakers include well-known passengers such as John Jacob Astor and Margaret (the Unsinkable Molly) Brown as well as those not so well known. Some of them perish and More...
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Nov 16, 2011
Susan rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Hmmm...I'm not sure how to rate this book...
There is so MUCH information (and mis information) about the Titanic already out there...but...
The author has really, really done his homework and research.
I love that the iceberg has a voice!
I think that the writing and poetry really capture the spirit of the people portrayed, as much as can be expected.
Allan Wolf has some excellent descriptions of what writing historical fiction is like in his Author's Note. ("When More...
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Feb 04, 2012
Heidi rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Wow. What a book. For me it was like The Book Thief where I started out with "This is OK" and "I'm a little confused with a couple of things" and especially "Why did these people tell me it was so amazing--I don't see that." And then, as with The Book Thief, I cannot tell you exactly when, how, or why, but suddenly I knew this book was amazing.

So, it already had me with being a Titanic book. And I was intrigued that it was various voices from the story t More...
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Feb 13, 2012
Cecilia rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I've kind of gotten obsessed with the titanic. It was a devastating and traumatic event and very interesting in my opinion. This book captures it very well, I think. This book is in poetic form but reads like a novel, and there aren't as many words per page so it's a quicker read and isn't really as long and thick as it might seem. It covers a dozen or so people that were on the titanic voyage -- anywhere from the captain(Smith) to a baker to a immigrant and refugee. I know that some of the char More...
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Oct 31, 2011
Diana rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Told in a wide variety of voices taken from those aboard and near the Titanic, Wolf manages to make each voice unique and consistent bringing the characters to life. He does not stop at human characters but also presents events and feelings from the viewpoints of the iceberg and a ship's rat. He tells the story through the eyes of rich and poor, 1st class, 3rd class, and crew, hero and villain. He backs up the historical authenticity with an author's note, biographies of the real individuals nam More...
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Jan 31, 2012
Bethany rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Everyone knows the story. An iceberg. A boat. 1,500 lives lost. This is the story that one hundred years later (April 2012 marks the centennial of the sinking) so fascinates that it's difficult to keep Titanic books on library shelves. It's one of those nonfiction sections every Children's Librarian can just walk to, like dinosaurs and cars. And yeah, there was that movie.

But this book manages to do something completely different with that story. A novel in verse, but beautifu More...
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Feb 15, 2012
Kc rated it: 3 of 5 stars
An interesting way to tell a story we all know the ending to. This book was picked for our library's One Book One Town selection with the author to visit in March. Written in verse form from the point of view of doomed passengers, a rat, and the iceberg itself. The minute by minute historic accounts brings the reader onto the ship. The last few pages of the novel are filled with wonderful information about the ship and the voyage itself: including how many cigars were on board, how many anim More...
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Oct 20, 2011
Christy rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Not usually a fan of novels in verse but this was okay. The verse is gorgeous and the detail incredible. So much thought was put into this novel. My favorite part (of course) is the verse written by the menacing iceberg making its way down from Greenland towards the ship. Grrr....

BUT, I also think the audience is limited for this title. My guess is adult readers (you know who you are) will love it and a few younger sophisticated readers will embrace it. I'm going to have to hand se More...
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Nov 28, 2011
Natalie rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I keep wanting to give this one 4 stars, but I think I just like the idea more than the execution. I love reading about the Titanic, and it's rare to find something that approaches the material in a new way these days. A free verse novel using the points of view of a wide variety of passengers and crew certainly fits the bill, and there was a lot that engaged me in the novel. I was disappointed that some of the verse was jarring, perhaps deliberately, including odd mixes of rhymed and unrhymed l More...
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Jan 08, 2012
Karen rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Lyrical style, haunting tone, weighty historical subject matter, unusual points of view, and recurring presence of death (in the character of the undertaker) makes me think that readers who liked The Book Thief might also like The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic, even though the subjects are completely different. Adults fascinated with the Titanic won't want to miss this YA book, a timely choice for discussion at book clubs and in class as the 100th anniversary of the disaster More...
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Jan 10, 2012
Miss rated it: 5 of 5 stars
How much of a summary do you really need here? Look at the cover -- it's a book about the Titanic. It's a verse novel with twenty-four voices telling their stories. First, second, and third class passengers, the captain, the lookouts and stokers, and even the rats and the iceberg are represented in these 480 pages. We all know how it ends (SPOILER: The ship sinks), which is what made this book great -- I didn't know who was going to live and who was going to die.

We've all heard, read More...
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Jan 10, 2012
Gayle rated it: 5 of 5 stars
April this year is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Hundreds of books, stories, and movies have been dedicated over the years to the event, but Mr. MacLennan takes a different approach. The Watch That Ends the Night is a compilation of facts and fiction written in verse, which I don’t usually read but that I enjoyed immensely. The pieces are first-person accounts leading up to and including the actual tragedy itself.

In the beginning, I read faster and faster More...
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Oct 05, 2011
Margo rated it: 5 of 5 stars
What else could be left to say about the Titanic, we could wonder. A quick WorldCat search for juvenile historical fiction about the Titanic turned up dozens of titles, including quite a few coming out in 2011. I must be one of the few people around, at least over the age of 30, who never saw the wildly popular 1997 movie, but I was curious to read this new teen novel by poet Allan Wolf about the 1912 disaster at sea. I am a huge fan of his 2004 novel, New Found Land: Lewis and Clark’s Voyag More...
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Dec 01, 2011
Kay rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Why are we still fascinated with the story of the Titanic? Nearly a hundred years later, we all know the boat sinks, but no one can seem to get enough of her story–and those of the over two thousand souls on her who sailed unkowingly to their destiny that April night.

Allan Wolf presents twenty-four of those individuals in a series of haunting poems that make up The Watch that Ends the Night. We hear from everyone from Captain EJ Smith, shipbuilder Thomas Andrews, and businessman Bru More...
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Nov 08, 2011
Chandra rated it: 5 of 5 stars
One hundred years later and the story of the Titanic is still fascinating. The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic is a unique retelling of that fateful journey. Even though parts of the book are fiction, the author has definately done his homework. The best part of the book was the authors notes at the end.
The story begins with the cast of voices that we hear throughout the book. Including a ship rat and the infamous iceburg. Of course we have to hear from J. J. Asto More...
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Nov 10, 2011
Shannon rated it: 4 of 5 stars
The Watch That Ends the Night is a moving piece of historical fiction told in verse, with over 20 POVs. Its a haunting, often foreshadowing look at the lives of those aboard the Titanic in the days leading up to and directly following its tragic sinking.

Before the start of Titanic's maiden voyage we are introduced to a massive amount of characters from all different economic and social backgrounds. With so many POVs it can be a bit confusing at first remembering who is who, especiall More...
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Nov 10, 2011
Ricki rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Next year, it will be 100 years after the Titanic sank. This is a phenomenal book in verse, told from the perspective of 24 different narrators. Allan Wolf captured a variety of different voices--the undertaker, the baker, a third-class immigrant, a socialite, the ship-builder, the stoker, the rats, the iceburg, and a child are just a few. I learned so much and felt compelled to learn even more about the Titanic after I finished. This is a great read that will interest many people of all ages.
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Nov 02, 2011
Elizabeth rated it: 5 of 5 stars
So this book got a ton and a half of good advance press, and the Titanic centennial is coming next year, then I heard it mentioned at a conference and knew I needed to buy it for the library and read it for myself. It grabbed me, sucked me in, didn't let go. In voices ranging from the captain to the stoker to the telegraph operator to the ship's rat, Wolf tells the story of the mighty, doomed Titanic. Real passengers appear in these pages, from a third-class Lebanese refugee to John Jacob Ast More...
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