Dangerous Lives

11. Animals in Danger: Polar Bears by Helen Orme.

This is a nice simple book with good pictures, largish writing but lots of information.

12. Usborne Famous Lives: Nelson by Minna Lacey.
13. Usborne Famous Lives: Churchill by Katie Daynes.

I was a bit turned off when I picked up one of this set for the first time, as the first chapter puts words into the mouth of the child who would grow up to be a famous and influential man. That seems to be a scene-setter, though, as the rest is in factual third person, although interestingly written. The subject is referred to by their first name for much or all of the book, which is okay with these two, but I found it very off-putting when I picked up the one about Hitler, yemach shmo. Call me prejudicedsensitive, but I don’t want to identify with him as a child. Learn about him, just possibly (although it’s not a priority), but that’s it. I wouldn’t have got that one at all, but they came as a set. I may just read that one to see how they have technically dealt with the subject, but I very much doubt it’ll go on the shelves.

Anyway, the Nelson and Churchill volumes are fairly well done, with a mixture of the facts of their public and private lives and the background of what was happening around them. I didn’t expect so much on the private lives, in fact, but it’s okay. I had known much of the stuff about Nelson, but I’d really only heard about Churchill in relation to WWII, so his earlier public career was interesting. It’s the WWII stuff, though, that’s making me think about reading that other one, to see are they comparing and contrasting.

Tags: Animals in Danger Polar Bears, biographies, books, children's non-fiction, Helen Orme, Katie Daynes, Minna Lacey, Nelson, Usborne Famous Lives, Winston Churchill