Nonfiction Monday: The Raucous Royals by Carlyn Beccia

Happy Nonfiction Monday! Today, I'm presenting another book that has been nominated in the Nonfiction Middle Grade/Young Adult category for the Cybils Awards.


Raucous Royals: Test your Royal Wits: Crack Codes, Solve Mysteries, and Deduce Which Royal Rumors are True is a very fun and engaging book that investigates whether or not common rumors about the world's most famous royalty throughout history are true or false. For example, did Anne Boleyn really have six fingers? Was Napolean Bonaparte as short as he was rumored to be? Was King Henry VIII so large that his servants had to carry him because he couldn't walk?

Throughout the book, readers encounter speech bubbles, quizzes, funny caricatures, tabloid magazine-style articles, and other interactive text that make readers become a part of the investigation and learn how over time, facts can be twisted. The information in the book is chunked into short segments so that readers never feel overwhelmed with content. A section at the end of the book even tells readers how they can begin to investigate other rumors they may have heard.

Carlyn Beccia made smart choices about which information to present, creating a book that makes history fun and appealing and that I believe will have kids interested in learning more. I'm definitely keeping my eye out for more books by her in the future.


Resources:

The Book's Blog and website include a lot of resources for further investigation. They're well worth checking out.

What Other Bloggers Are Saying:

I.N.K. "A book with wickedly appealing art and layout, little quizzes, juicy historical tidbits." (read more...)



More Info:

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 64 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; 1 edition (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618891307
• ISBN-13: 978-0618891306
• Source: Review copy from publisher

Also by Carlyn Beccia:

Check out Picture Book of the Day for more Nonfiction Monday selections.