Even just the title of the series makes me happy: "The Thinking Girl's Treasury of Dastardly Dames."
How cool is that? Dastardly dames....it has a great ring to it.
I always had a fascination with Marie Antoinette. I loved the stories of her lap-of-luxury royalty life and was properly horrified by her cavalier attitude toward the poor.
This book from Goosebottom Books' series reminded me how much I enjoyed reading historical fiction and other stories about the French queen.
The blood-spattered pages add drama and the illustrations are colorful and eye-catching.
The other stories are the same way -
Cleopatra, Serpent of the Nile
Mary Tudor, Bloody Mary
Agrippina, Atrocious and Ferocious
Cixi, the Dragon Empress
Catherine deMedici, the Black Queen
I can imagine these books providing historical inspiration to so many young ladies who may not see themselves in the history books. They call themselves "fun non-fiction" but each book also has a thorough teacher's resource guide.
These are a great set of books, and I think they'd make a really lovely gift for a "thinking girl." I have a few in mind myself and let me tell you, I sincerely hope that I can raise one in my own household.
(The only downside of these books? I tried to convince David to read them and help me out with this review but the word "girl" on the cover turned him off a little. I think he would have found them to be really interesting, he loves history. I will keep working on it...)
Full disclosure - I received a set of these books from the publisher for review. I am planning to donate them to our school library, where I'm sure they will be well-read and enjoyed!
2 comments:
Make sure you have your daughter (or sons) read a series of books - first one called All of a KInd Family - story of a Jewish family living in New York city in about 1920. Loved that series.
This is the thing: There are so many books that my son would NEVER dream of picking up because of the cover art, but I think he would tatally dig this series. Or he would have when he was younger. A voracious reader, I know he would have loved them -- but as a mother and a teacher, I'm soooo glad to see more and more YA's with strong female protagonist featuring women who aren't all broken down and shattered.
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