Book Review: How They Croaked
Meet the Book…
Bragg, Georgia. (2012). How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous. Bloomsbury USA Childrens.
Lexile: 950
Summary: A dive in the deaths of famous historical figures, such as Cleopatra, Charles Darwin, Marie Antoinette, and Edgar Allen Poe.
This is an information packed book about death that is some parts gross, some parts funny, but all around surprisingly entertaining! The introduction begins with a big, bolded warning:
...and me, being the curious cat that cannot look away if something says “DO NOT LOOK”, thought it wouldn’t be that bad.I was very, very wrong; the first biography was about King Tut and his mummification and Bragg does NOT skimp on the details. And if you don’t know the details...well, let’s just say don’t be eating while you read them. Yuck-inducing details aside, How They Croaked was actually very informational and entertaining! I learned quite a few things, and had a lot of fun reading the facts out loud to my fiance (and cats, as my fiance stopped listening after the 50th fact share). For example, Edgar Allen Poe only earned 300 dollars for all of his writings over his lifetime (Bragg pg. 111)! Definitely not a fun fact, more disappointing...but a fact I didn’t know!
Bragg also doesn’t gloss over parts of history and the different things these historical figures did, making their actions sound innocent (like julius caesar and christopher columbus). I appreciated Bragg’s straight-forward and sometimes blunt storytelling; children should know all parts of history, both inspiring and ugly, to help them learn from it! Bragg also deals with these deaths (and death in general) in a very scientific, matter-of-fact way; again, death is a fact of life and this book displays it in a humorous but factual way. Books like this are important because death is something everyone experiences, and having resources like this help normalize it and make it easier to talk about (at least, in my opinion).
Some of my favorite parts are the little fact sheets after each biography about different aspects of that historical era. For example, after King Tut’s biography, Bragg gives a list of how mummy remains were used to make medicine after; it lists Henry the VII’s daily feast with his court (it’s a LOT of chickens), and other unpleasant-yet-fascinating facts.
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| Taking reduce, reuse, recycle a little too far here... |
It’s a very blunt book that talks about death in a realistic way (with some laugh material), and also tells historical accounts straight forward; there is no flowery verbiage about these historical figures and what they did. I think it would be a great resource for students’ research papers on historical figures, as it gives quite a bit of uncommonly known information. I think this would also be great for the young true-crime fan! It’s an addicting read, and I found it hard to put the book down multiple times.
Readalikes:
School-age:
The Dreadful, Smelly Colonies: The Disgusting Details About Life in Colonial America by Elizabeth Raum
A brief history of how unappealing it was to live in Colonial America. It includes many different infographics about Colonial America, what daily life was like, the kinds of tasks they had, etc. Definitely in the same vein as How They Croaked and similar to the You Wouldn’t Want… history book series.
Tween:
How They Choked: Failures, Flops, and Flaws of the Awfully Famous by Georgia Bragg
The sequel to How They Croaked, it includes more stories of the famous deaths of the famous.
Teen:
Lincoln’s Grave Robbers by Steve Sheinkin
Did you know a counterfeiting ring planned to steal Lincoln's body for ransom? Me neither! A historical true crime thriller for the aspiring CSI agent.
What an interesting book!! And great blog summarizing the book. I would want to read this for the history aspect of it; their deaths are an added bonus. I do believe that readers who are into history and those who are into the morbid would love this book. It goes along the same line of one that I blogged about (#4 - Deadly Hauntings) which dealt more with the history of the area and tragedy that led up to the hauntings. I've added this to my TBR list.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of reading this for my blog, but I might not get to it. I'll still read it sometime soon, especially after reading your review.
ReplyDeleteThe inclusion of both the good and the bad of history in this book is so important. I wish more nonfiction books would do it - slowly but surely. It truly builds critical thinking and historical analysis in young readers.
I appreciated your comments about the author's science-oriented take on death and dying. Using science, honesty and a bit of humor is a great way to introduce the topic to readers that are curious about death. There are other titles, that are less humorous but very informational, if they continue to want to know more — "After Life: Ways We Think About Death" by Merrie-Ellen Wilcox and "Spook" by Mary Roach.
This book is probably not often thought of as a reference book for biography assignments but it’d be great! Thanks for that suggestion. Was the author's research process and source notes clear anywhere in the title?
Sorry, this is Samantha -- still not listing my username for some unknown reason.
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