How They Croaked: The Awful Deaths of the Awfully Famous, by Georgia Bragg; illustrated by Kevin O'Malley (Walker Books for Young Readers, 2011)

Recommended for ages 10-13

Most school-aged kids know who King Tut, George Washington, and Napoleon were, but what they may not know is how they died. How They Croaked delivers the full-on details of how these historic figures and 16 others met their makers in gloriously gory detail.

Along the way, Bragg dispels famous myths - Cleopatra did not meet her doom at the fangs of an asp - and provides insight on how modern medicine may have saved a few of these famous lives. George Washington, for instance, could have survived if only he had access to antibiotics.

Bragg provides morality in her profiles. We learn that Pocahontas was exploited from the minute she saved Captain John Smith from the axe, and that Robert Carter, the "explorer" who discovered King Tut's tomb, wasn't much more than a grave robber on a grander scale. We also learn some amusing details along the way, including famous last words, what cupping was all about, and some gross information about Marie Antoinette's three-foot hairdo.

Kevin O'Malley, writer and illustrator of children's books such as Animal Crackers Fly the Coop! and Mount Olympus Basketball, gives the reader his macabre best while still keeping it on a level that younger readers won't shy away from, including a a distended Henry VIII and a shrieking Julius Caesar.

For reluctant readers and kids (or grownups!) who just want a fun read that makes you squeal with squeamish delight, How They Croaked is a perfect addition to your history library.

Book Blogging

I've decided to blog about the books I read this year. I read a lot of books, and looking back at the end of the year, I'm never able to quite remember everything I've read, for better or worse.

I ended last year and began this year with a book called Strange Nervous Laughter by Bridget McNulty, which'll be coming out in March. I've got to admit, this one left me cold. I'm able to read a book that doesn't necessarily appeal to me and still find something good about it, or pick who it will appeal to, but this one was just on my nerves from about five pages in.

The two biggest issues I had were the shallow characters that the author tried to make deep and a major storylines that just went nowhere. I felt like the author wrote this book to show how literary she is. For instance, one of the most irritating characters in the book is a woman who wears a “corset of cynicism”. Good. Lord. Maybe it's just too experimental or surrealistic for me - that's one genre of literature I've never been able to completely get on board with.

The story begins with an interesting scenario – a robbery at a grocery store in Durban, South Africa. Three of the main characters are in the store being robbed, but the robbery just becomes a throwaway reference point after it's over. The scene was just there to introduce the characters.

And speaking of the characters, there are six main characters, all of whom not only have their own little dysfunctional superpower but who have also had some abysmal childhoods. These six damaged folks end up pairing off and eventually falling apart.

I was frustrated with this book early on, and looking back, I still can't say I found something I truly enjoyed. I'll have to see what the word is on this book when it hits the shelves.

I just picked up a book I got during my BEA 2006 run; I've been dying to read it for ages and just decided to take a break from everything else and grab it. Mary, by Janis Cooke Newman, is a fictional autobiography of Abraham Lincoln's widow, Mary Todd Lincoln. History nerd that I am, I've been interested in her for years and the book is very readable. It's told in the first person from Mary's point of view, right after her commitment for insanity 10 years after President Lincoln's assassination; she's looking back at her life and currently, I'm up to when her father remarries her stepmother, who's apparently a wicked witch. I think I'm going to enjoy this read.