How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous

General YA Non-Fiction

VG/A Bragg, Georgia. How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous. Walker & Co., 2011. 184p. 978-0-8027-9817-6. 17.99.

This fun book provides five-minute history lessons of famous people throughout history, including Cleopatra, Marie Curie, Beethoven, Einstein and Gallileo. It gives a brief description of the person’s life and what they are famous for and then explains how they died (which was often gruesome or strange). After each short chapter there are two pages of additional information, such as timelines, definitions of terms mentioned and modern cures. The book also includes an index and a great bibliography and additional reading list. Although it might not be the greatest book for a research project, it is definitely a good read and may inspire readers to learn more about the famous peoples lives it explores. Loren Spector, LAPL, Felipe de Neve