Bibliographical information:

Deary, Terry and Martin Brown, The Wicked History of the World: History with the Nasty Bits Left in! 2003. New York: Scholastic, 2006.

 

Brief summary:

An irreverent overview of "horrible history" from prehistory to World War II. It includes cartoon illustrations along with quotations from primary source material.

Comments:

When they say "nasty bits," they mean it. The book emphasizes the gruesome, reveling in the horror and exhorting readers to do better than these horrible models. I found this book while I was trying to track down some of the "Dead Famous" series Peter recommended. I brought it home to look at, and decided it would be too gruesome for my ten-year-old. But she found it on my shelf and read it through at one sitting with great enthusiasm.

Grade/Age level:

Fourth through sixth grade?

Cautions:

There's a lot of violence described here, some of it quite graphically. The historical account is also oversimplified. While this is to be expected in a cartoon history, some of the accounts might confuse kids. For example, the authors explain the birth of Protestantism by saying that Protestants said that the Church was too wealthy and wanted to give more to the poor, but the Church responded that it needed the money because Church  leaders liked being rich (49). The School Library Journal says that this book might appeal to reluctant readers, which is certainly true. But it might also be troubling to some kids.

--Lisa Gordis

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