Brave and determined intern Ariel tackled a project of massive proportions: building a 27-inch paper model of The Titanic in honor of this week’s centennial.
The model pieces and instructions are included in The Titanic Notebook: The Story of the World’s Most Famous Ship by Claire Hawcock (Insight Editions, March). Though the browse-worthy Notebook is jam-packed with pop-ups, foldouts, and trivia, Ariel headed straight for the model—and stuck with it for the next three and a half grueling hours.
supplies: instructions, punch-out pieces, glue, and (this one is crucial!) coffee
Ariel explains, “It was doable, but took some time to figure out. The diagrams are not exactly clear.” She found the pieces to be well-made and sturdy, but the shiny cardstock was “not glue-friendly”. A good deal of Scotch tape was needed to avert disaster.
Ariel hard at work
Based on Ariel’s experience with decoding the instructions and coaxing the parts together, the recommended age of seven years and up may be a bit ambitious; this is probably a better bet for older kids or a kid-and-adult team. But as Ariel says, “It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?!”
the final product...
...complete with ice-cube iceberg
For more Titanic, see Horn Book Magazine contributor Betty Carter’s annotated Titanic bibliography.
About Katie Bircher
