Titanicat (True Stories)

by: Marty Crisp; illustrated by Robert Papp

Published by: Sleeping Bear Press

Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart
I’ve always been interested in books about the ocean liner Titanic. Even if the book is geared toward children ages four to eight. In Marty Crisp’s new book, Titanicat, I learned new trivia about the ship.

This time about the ship’s cat, known as 4-0-1. Shipping lore says that it’s unlucky to call a ship by its name while it is under construction. The numbers 4-0-1 was the number of the ship and therefore the name of the cat cabin boy Jim Mulholland gives the tortoiseshell cat that accompanies him as he boards the ship for the first time.

The story behind Jim and 4-0-1 comes from the 1997 memoir of Titanic stewardess Voilet Jessop who wrote that a ship’s cat had a litter of four kittens before the launch.

This new information was followed by a report in the “Belfast Irish News” with a 92-year-old former journalist. The reporter, Paddy Scott, said “he’d talked with an Irishman who claimed he crewed Titanic’s trails and was assigned the care of the ship’s cat. When the cat got off in Southhampton, taking her kittens with her, the superstitious young sailor followed.”

The story the kids will hear in Titanicat, is the story of Jim and 4-0-1, how he cared for her and her kittens, and her leaving the ship, which ultimately saved the young boy’s life. I think kids would like it. I did.

Armchair Interviews says: Sweet tale about a cat and an famous oceanliner.

Author’s Web site: http://www.MartyCrisp.com