How they Croaked

Bragg, G. (2011). How they Croaked: The awful ends of the awfully famous. New York: Walker.

How They Croaked tells how 19 famous people really died. From King Tut to Albert Einstein, we learn exactly how it happened. Each chapter covers a different person's death and ends with two pages of interesting facts about parts of their lives or medical procedures used by the doctors of that time.

I see this book as one that would be very popular in my classroom. There is something about gross and macabre that draws kids to a book. Plus death is such a mystery that it would hold great appeal. I think I would use this book as a reference as we learned about famous people. The information presented gives a look at their lives that many of us do not know. I had no idea about Charles Dickens being manic depressive or that Darwin had such phobias. I do have the companion book, How They Choked, in my class library. I think I need to pull it out!