Deadly Days in History (Horrible Histories) by Terry Deary and Martin Brown
| Deadly Days in History (Horrible Histories) by Terry Deary and Martin Brown | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: Margaret Young
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| Summary: Horrible Histories' most horrible book yet. This large full colour hardback edition makes a perfect addition to any Horrible Histories collection, but be warned - this book is even more gruesome than most. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 96 | Date: May 2013 |
| Publisher: Scholastic | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1407121451 | |
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Horrible Histories' catch phrase is History - with all the nasty bits left in. This is not completely true, Scholastic is not going to print a children's book with details which are too graphic for children, but this is without a doubt the nastiest and most gruesome of all of the Horrible Histories books we have read. While I am happy enough reading most of the Horrible Histories books to my 4 year old as well as my 8 year old, I do think this one is best for the older children, would recommend a minimum age of 7, and this only if the child is already aware of the Holocaust, or the parent is prepared to broach this subject in a sensitive manner and provide further information.
With a title like 'Deadly Days in History', one can only expect to read about a lot of bloodshed. This book details one horrific event after another, including mutilation and murder of children. There are descriptions of the Viking blood eagle, beating hearts being ripped from the still living body of the sacrificial victims, women and children being hacked to death, and the victims of the gas chambers of Auschwitz screaming in terror as they are slowly killed by the poison fumes. Other Horrible History books may have one or two truly horrifying bits, but this book has quite a few. Even my son, who loves Stupid Death on the Horrible Histories DVDs found this difficult reading at times. I would very strongly recommend parental discretion with this book.
Horrible Histories Deadly Days in History begins with first known massacre in Talheim Germany, roughly 5,000 BC. This is told in Deary's usual light hearted style with a few jokes thrown in. It ends with Auschwitz, which Deary sensibly makes no attempt to lighten up with jokes or wisecracks. Thankfully this section is short, focusing mainly on the development of Zyklon B, but if your child has no knowledge of the Holocaust, this could be terrifying. Likewise, several descriptions of massacres, torture and other gruesome events may frighten younger children, and even if a single event is not too much, reading story after story of death and despair may trouble them. This is not ideal bedtime reading. If you are reading this with your child, you will notice if they become overly concerned, but if a young child will be reading on their own, I would still recommend that the parent read it as well and be prepared to discuss any sensitive issues. I chose to read this with my son, taking turns with pages.
My son did enjoy this book. He enjoys gallows humour, and there are many wicked jokes in this book to lighten the overall mood. Some people may find these a bit gruesome, but without these the book would be a very depressing and miserable affair. A bit of humour, black though it may be, lightens the mood and keeps the overall experience of reading this book enjoyable. Otherwise, the horror of what humans can do to other humans might become overwhelming. The illustrations are excellent, often funny and never overly graphic. My son especially likes the illustrations of the grim reaper and the rat, both favourites from the television programme. He also likes the jokes at the expense of the Romans, the Aztecs and others who were quite cruel themselves - or in the case of the Aztecs - shall we say heartless? He very much enjoyed the Germanic tribes victories over the Romans as well. I did read Bleriot's flight to both of my sons, and both really liked this story, which included some details we had not known, but I've no idea why it was included in this book. There is nothing about death in this story.
My favourite section was not the least bit funny, but an ideal starting point for a philosophical conversation. It is the story of Henry Tandley, who through an act of goodness and decency spared the life of a wounded German soldier. Sadly that soldier turned out to be Adolph Hitler, but it shows very clearly that the best of intentions do not always work out for the best. We can only do the best we can with the knowledge we have at the time. We both agreed that what Tandley did was right - even if the consequences were horrible indeed.
With the dark subject matter, this is not always quite as entertaining as the original Horrible Histories, but if anything, it is more educational. This is not a complaint, you just cannot make some subjects, like Auschwitz fun and entertaining. Some topics are very funny, but others are much more sobering. I think Deary has chosen very wisely which subjects to approach with his usual jokes and which are simply to serious to make light of. There is nothing I would class as insensitive. More than any other book in this series this makes a point of the senselessness of many of mankind's cruelest acts, and I do feel it encourages empathy and critical thought. In short, Death may be stupid in the Horrible Histories series, but prejudice, hatred and cruelty are shown to be more stupid. I think this book encourages children to think for themselves and hopefully avoid the nasty isms of life like sectarianism and racism, by showing how absolutely foolish these things are.
But this book does have a few flaws. The first is a typo. When reading about the Talheim Massacre we learn that archaeologists unearthed 34 skeletons and that the victims died roughly 5,000 years BC. The book then goes on to tell us, twice in fact, that this took place 34,000 years ago. I could literally see the wheels turning in my sons head as he tried to make sense of these numbers before coming to the conclusion that if this is 2012, and the massacre took place 5,000 years BC, it had to be about 7,000 years ago. This did cause momentary confusion, but it is easy to see what happened, with the numbers of the dead being mixed up with the number of years ago this happened. Another section which confused us slightly was on the Convict ships to Australia. Deary tells us the youngest convict was only 9 years old, but shortly afterwards mentions a child of 6 being sent to Australia. There is no explanation for this discrepancy. The next possible error is that Deary refutes the story that Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 theses to the church door, stating mailed not nailed. This was a popular idea among historians for some time, due to a lack of contemporary evidence to support the story, but it was never proven. The original story has since gained more credence with the discovery of documents written by Luther's private secretary mentioning these events. Of course this happens with history, we find another document that changes everything, and even so many do still believe that the story of nailing the theses to the door is just a legend. We will probably never know for certain, but I felt this should have been presented as theory rather than fact. Finally, according to Deary, the Great Fire of Rome was started by a careless sausage seller. I have no idea where this came from, but there is no evidence whatsoever to support this. It makes a good story, but it is not history. As to Deary's assertions that Nero's enemies claimed he played the fiddle while Rome burned, this is also quite unlikely - as Nero never played a fiddle at all. It wouldn't be invented for almost 1,500 years.
Despite my issues with this book, I am still giving it five stars. It has a few minor faults, but I can't say they were any that seriously took away from our enjoyment of the book. If the book were not outstanding in so many other ways, I might have knocked a half of a star off, but as it stands, this book is simply too good for anything less than 5 stars. It remains a book that children will read because they enjoy reading it, not because they are being forced to learn history. I do enjoy history myself, and am reasonably well read on the subject, but I never fail to learn something new from Deary's books. Even if I am disputing his facts, I am looking things up learning more. I may be far too old for Deary's books, but the truth is, I still enjoy them. But my main reason for rating this book so highly, is that Deary does teach children an incredible amount of history, without them ever realising they are learning. He may have rude bits, silly parts and even disgusting sections, but beneath all the wicked wit is a real message of kindness and tolerance as well. And if all that were not enough, his books appeal to a wide group of boys who are desperate for books about real things. They want non-fiction, but not the dull dry history we were force fed in school. Unless we convince them otherwise, children honestly do have a real thirst for knowledge, and Deary satisfies that thirst, while leaving them wanting to read and learn more. Deary makes learning fun - and children do learn more when having fun.
Further reading suggestions:
The Beastly Best Bits (Horrible Histories) by Terry Deary
Terrifying Tudors (Horrible Histories) by Terry Deary
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You can read more book reviews or buy Deadly Days in History (Horrible Histories) by Terry Deary and Martin Brown at Amazon.com.
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