Monday, December 01, 2008

The Raucous Royals


Beccia, Carlyn. 2008. The Raucous Royals: Test Your Royal Wits: Crack Codes, Solve Mysteries, and Deduce which Royal Rumors are True.

I didn't know quite what to expect out of this one. A picture book focusing on royal scandals? Really? I was pleasantly surprised at just HOW much fun this book is. Granted, I've always--almost always--liked history. But this isn't a dry presentation of facts--dull and dusty. History comes alive--tabloid style. It's engaging readers in a new (or new-to-me) way.

Thirteen royal myths are presented, offered up to the reader, some of them are decidedly false, others are open to interpretation. And there's something about that which is just appealing. (Maybe I'm the only one who was brought up thinking history was solid indisputable facts--definitely nothing ever be open to interpretation.) History a matter of guesswork? History a bunch of mysteries to be pondered? To try to solve? Like cold cases almost? Definitely make this one work for me.

For other stops on the tour:

01 Charger, the 160acrewoods, A Mom Speaks, All About Children’s Books, Becky’s Book Reviews, Cafe of Dreams, Dolce Bellezza, Fireside Musings, The Friendly Book Nook, The Hidden Side of a Leaf, Homeschool Buzz, Hyperbole, KidzBookBuzz.com, Looking Glass Reviews, Maw Books Blog, Never Jam Today, Our Big Earth, Quiverfull Family, Reading is My Superpower, SmallWorld Reads, SMS Book Reviews

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

3 comments:

The Budgeting Diva said...

This looks like a really interesting book to read.

Annette Laing said...

As my blog goes on and on and on about...History can be fun. I thought this book wasn't bad at all, although not as wonderfully entertaining as Horrible Histories. And it does show that historians are detectives, not collectors of boring facts (textbooks ought to be burned... :-)) BTW, did you know that the word "history" doesn't come from shoving together "his" and "story", but from the Greek word historia, which means learning through enquiry? Yup, we ask questions all the time, and frequently disagree with each other over the answers...

Cindy B said...

This one sounds like fun! I thought I'd drop in and say hi. I followed the link from the 999 challenge, and I found a lot of fun books on here!