Monday, April 18, 2011

How they Croaked by Georgia Bragg. RECOMMENDED

Bragg, Georgia & Illustrated by O’Malley, Kevin How they croaked –The awful ends of the awfully famous, 192 pgs. Walker Books for Young Readers, 2011. $10.43. NON-FICTION. Content: Language-G Mature Content-PG Violence -PG

This book takes on the deaths of 19 famous people throughout history, from King, to Henry III, to Albert Einstein. Interwoven into a succinct biography of each person are any health problems that contributed to their demise followed by a detailed description of the person’s death. Each chapter is followed by a variety of mini features like medical descriptions, fun facts, and interesting tidbits.
I loved this book and could not put it down no matter how gross the descriptions of health problems and dying got. The language was spot-on and fantastic for older elementary students as well as junior high students. These are the famous people they are studying at school, and it becomes quite apparent that all the interesting stuff is left out of textbooks. The best part is that quite a bit of biographical information is thrown in, so the historical connections are great, and students can learn quite a bit without realizing it. I am still up in the air about the illustrations. The art style is unique and actually really hip, however, students today are a product of a multimedia world. So what I really wanted to see was photos, drawings, and diagrams like DK books offer. Overall I would highly recommend.
Elementary, MS –Recommended. Reviewer: Stephanie MLS graduate.

1 comment:

Ms. Yingling said...

I'll have to look into this one. It seems like a good choice for reluctant readers.