I loved this book! My first, and lasting, impression of it is: what a great way to trick students into learning some history! The reader is lured into the stories because s/he thinks they will be gory tales, and they are, but the reader also learns about the lives of important historical figures in the process. The book discusses 19 noteworthy people from British and American History, by using their less-than-desirable causes of death to revolve their life stories around. Students may not know or care who Marie Curie is, but they will be interested in the fact that she radiated herself to death. Likewise, they may not have much knowledge of Henry VIII, but the fact that he pretty much ate himself to death with pull students in, and then they will learn about his sad series of wives and the state off medicine in that day, which finished him off. In fact, it is a theme throughout the book that many of these people died because of lack of medical knowledge and wacky "cures" that actually made them worse. So the book teaches some history, both of the people involved, and also that of medical science.
Overall, this book is written for a middle/early high school aged students. I think this would be a great book to bring into a history class and provide students with extra information. It's the type of book many kids won't mind reading because the author's organizational style and tone is easy to follow and mixed with humor. The illustrations are great and really catch the readers eye. Even if the students do not read the whole book, they can at least skim through the book and see what catches their eye and read about them. In my opinion, it makes learning fun for the students.The end of each chapter has a 2 page spread with trivia. Bragg ends the book on a lighter note reminding her readers that even though the individuals she described died horribly they lived passionately and that readers should live their lives similarly.
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