Terrible But True: Awful Events in American History: Awful Events in American History - Softcover

Williams, Dinah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0545909724 ISBN 13: 9780545909723

Publisher: Scholastic Nonfiction, 2016

Synopsis

Think American history is all boring battles and snooze-worthy old dudes? Think again!Welcome to Terrible But True, where you'll dig deep into America's forgotten past to uncover some creepy, disgusting, and just plain bizarre stories. From America's first serial killers and deadly vampire-like diseases to haunted ghost ships and vicious river pirates, our nation's history is weirder than you could have ever imagined. So dive in and prepare to be shocked, because sometimes the truth is even stranger than fiction.

About this title

About the Author

Dinah Williams is an editor and children's book author, who is fascinated by odd and unusual stories. Her nonfiction books include Abandoned Amusement Parks; Secrets of Walt Disney World; Haunted Hollywood; and Spooky Cemeteries, which won the 2009 Children's Choice Award. She lives in Cranford, NJ, with her husband and daughters, who hate all things scary. Visit her online at http://www.dinahwilliams.com/.

From School Library Journal

Gr 5 Up—Williams introduces readers to a variety of tragic events in chronological order. Famous and lesser-known topics are represented, including Revolutionary War prison ships, Philadelphia's Yellow Fever epidemic, the San Francisco earthquake, the Boston Molasses Flood, and 56 other occurrences. While many incidents are indeed tragic, others seem out of place. For instance, there is a chapter dedicated to the mercury-laden pills provided to the members of the Lewis and Clark expedition, but no injury or fatality came about from them. In relating the plight of Chinese railroad workers, Williams discusses their strike demands, but no mention is made of any resulting deaths until an inset at the end of the chapter. Likewise, scale is also an issue (the failed assassination attempt on Andrew Jackson in relation to other events that involved the deaths of many people). The chapters are extremely brief, and the narrative is overall uninspiring except for the quotations by witnesses. Readers should instead check out Jim Murphy's The Great Fire and An America Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 and Steven Otfinoski's The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: Core Events of an Industrial Disaster. VERDICT Despite the promising premise and the introduction of many little-known tragic events, the flat narrative and the brevity in detail make this a secondary purchase.—Margaret Nunes, Gwinnett County Public Library, GA

Edition details

• Publisher: Scholastic Nonfiction
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0545909724
• ISBN 13: 9780545909723
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 192