Stephanie Warren DrimmerRezensionen

THE BOOK OF KINGS and THE BOOK OF QUEENS are companion reference books from National Geographic that explore the lives of people from around the world. Each thematic chapter includes visionaries, leaders, or scholars who made major contributions. The colorful illustrators and short articles provide a useful introduction to kickstart a deeper exploration of people from all walks of life.

Biography.com explores the lives of thousands of people from around the world. Although the ads can be annoying, the website is well-organized and easy to use. Users can search for individuals or browse by people, nostalgia, celebrity, history and culture, or crime and scandal. Videos are also available.

Biography https://www.biography.com/

ARC courtesy of National Geographic Kids.

National Geographic books are my favorite! The pictures pop, the facts are easy to read, and they are organized. I learned so much about African animals. For example, there are 38 species of big cats. The books make you think about something that you usually don't think about on a regular day.

These two books have a similar format to The Book of Heroines and The Book of Heroes. I liked them, but I have some problems with the endings and now I'm wondering if I shouldn't check those previous books too.

Magyar wrote The Book of Kings with Drimmer, who wrote The Book of Queens solo. Both include snippets from the other book and generally follow the same layout. Each book is divided into chapters, organizing influential, legendary, or powerful men and women. Kings includes the following sections, "Empire Builders," "Military Masterminds," "Rulers in Revolution," "Lords of Legend," "Kings of Creativity," "Aristocrats of Action," "Kings of Change," and "Kings of Knowledge." Queens has a slightly different lineup, "Empire Builders," "Women of Action," "Revolutionary Rulers," "Culture Shapers," "Monarchs of the Arts," "Legendary Leaders," "Queens of Knowledge," and "Queens of Adventure."

Both include a fairly wide range of people, although it does tend heavily towards Western history and some sections seem to have forgotten to add non-white people. The short biographies are interspersed with information on famous royal jewels, weapons, etc. Kings includes Hammurabi, Agamemnon, Oberon, Babe Ruth, Christiaan Barnard, Isaac Newton, Minakata Kumagusu, Sun Wukong, Coyote, Saladin, and Richard 1. Queens has Empress Cixi, Ranavalona I, Serena Williams, Dolly Parton, Wonder Woman, Kim Swift, Jane Addams, Ellen DeGeneres, Helen Mirren, Maya Lin, Amina, and Jill Tarter.

The portraits are brief, as one would expect in a compendium, not allowing the more complex aspects of the peoples' characters to be shown. Both have indexes and photo credits, but no sources. Both books have inspirational messages to readers in the back. These are what really got to me. In Kings, the messages are "Kings lead by example; Kings are eager to learn; Kings motivate the masses; Kings are confident; Kings have a clear vision." In Queens, the messages are: "Queens lead with integrity; Queens command with courage; Queens respect the role; Queens are passionate; Queens empower their people." There just seems to me to be a disconnect here. Apart from the gendered division into the two books, I felt there was a definite push to admire some male leaders who had done terrible things and gloss over their shortcomings, while the portraits of the women mostly ignored the heavier odds stacked against them.

However, these complaints aside, this wouldn't be the kind of thing I'd give to a kid who was writing a history report or wanting to learn in-depth about these people. This is a book for readers to browse and pick up snippets about people that they can then follow up later. I would have preferred that they divided them up differently - maybe have two books but put all genders together in each and have one be historical and one modern or something.

Verdict: Not an essential purchase, but a nice collection of interesting people to spark kids' interest in biography and certainly a more diverse collection than I've seen anywhere else.

The Book of Kings
ISBN: 9781426335334

The Book of Queens
ISBN: 9781426335358

Published November 2019 by National Geographic; Review copies provided by publicist

This is a great book for young girls to read but I had a couple issues with the book. This was about heroines yet there were daring dudes on several pages. I don't think a single man needed to be mentioned in this book. They get enough coverage. And from the cover I would say this is a book about women yet several pages were dedicated to animals that were heroes. That should be in a book dedicated to animals not women. That is very disappointing.

HEY, BABY! by Stephanie Warren Drimmer introduces children to a collection of pictures, poems, and stories exploring animal babies.

From mountains and plains to oceans and seas, each of the eight chapters explores animal babies from a different region of the world. Anecdotes and short stories are told through poems, folktales, short narratives, and descriptive passages along with fact boxes and high-quality photographs. The book concludes with a map, additional resources, and an index.

Librarians will find this adorable collection to be popular with children of all ages. Parents would find this coffee-table sized book useful for short, bedtime reading, while teachers could use excerpts for information reading activities. The index provides easy access to particular animals for students doing reports on animal babies.

Published by National Geographic Children’s Books, an imprint of Random House on November 14, 2017. ARC courtesy of the publisher.½

No matter whether they are human babies or animal babies, they take a lot of work, but they are sooooo cute! Through poems, stories, folktales, and descriptions we are introduced to some of the most amazing and adorable baby animals from all over the world. The book is divided into geographic areas like Mountains and Plains, Jungles and Savannas, and Ocean and Sea Babies for example. Then animals from each region are shown through pictures with an accompanying tale, poem, or description about its life.

I learned numerous facts about baby animals and their parents, but my favorites were the folktales and legends in the story. I had never heard the legend of the pink dolphins or how the zebra got its stripes and the baboon got its bare bottom. I had no idea Paul Bunyan had a connection to why whales aren't found in lakes. The back of the book also gives a bit of background on each of the legends and folktales and how their stories have continued for generations.

The photography is amazing, of course. The babies are just the cutest and the photos of moms with their babies remind the readers that animal or human, mothers just want to protect and love their babies. This is a coffee-table-sized book that can be pulled out and looked through over the course of several weeks or read in a few sittings. The pictures alone will keep kids looking through the pages over and over again.

The concept of an explosively interesting, eye-catching, mind-engaging book of women who have achieved much in spite of societal difficulties is fabulous and National Geographic Kids books has done a great job of compiling this collection of short biographic sketches replete with photographs and grapics.

I personally think that inclusion of Wonder Woman in this collection is an error in judgment by the author and editor. Fantasy and imaginary characters play a role in exciting fiction, but super heroes from comic books are not the stuff of quality writing to encourage children to strive for high achievement.

Real life is better and more exciting than fiction any day.

Included in this collection of fabulous ladies of achievement are legendary women of ancient times venerated by generations of peoples and history itself. Women in battle, women in science, women at work. Women can - they have and still do, achieve great accomplishment despite many obstacles.

At the end of the book is a section on animals who have been great achievers as well. Very interesting.

What do I think of the book? I think it presents a lot of super information about heroines and is a really good book for perusing that will most likely lead to additional investigative research. I love the short biographic sketches of individuals. There is a fantastic amount of information to be gleaned from this fun book.

I received a complimentary copy to facilitate a review of my honest opinions which are freely given.

Mastermind is such a FUN educational book!! It is truly AWESOME!

What type of Genius are you? Read and discover for yourself! This book is a creatively informative discussion of the Brain and all aspects of it. While providing a tremendous amount of information, it does so through the humorous "brainiac", Ima Genius, and her companion Atom, a canine, plus, an enormous amount of wonderful activities! There are even great ideas for science fairs!

The book discusses unique cases where the brain functions differently, and has different perceptions, it explores the human body's different senses, systems, and cognitive skills, plus, it has trivia of animals brains and senses, as well! It is clearly illustrated with photos and illustrations galore! Every page presents colorful activities, trivia, puzzles, cognitive games, etc!

YOUTH BEWARE, parents will surely try to confiscate this for their own use! Keep it under close guard!

*I was sent this book in exchange for an honest review, of which I have given.