Book Review: History's Mysteries by Kitson Jazynka

Title: History's Mysteries: Curious Clues, Cold Cases, and Puzzles From the Past

Author: Kitson Jazynka

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: National Geographic Children's Books

Publication Date: October 17, 2017

Source: Publisher

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Oh my freaking goodness!  I had no idea I would love this book as much as I actually did!  Truth be told, I am actually kind of sad that it ended.

History's Mysteries is filled to the brim with bits of stories and information on a lot of different topics.  All of which are unsolved or things not quite figured out (and may never be).  And it covers quite a range of topics - buildings/structures, creatures, lost things....

Some of the things in the book I kind of knew about, but not really.  An example of this would be Stonehenge.  I of course have heard about it, but I haven't really looked into much information on it.  And while this book doesn't have a lot of information on any one thing, it does have some pretty good information for each thing.  So I definitely learned some new stuff on something I already knew a little about.

Then there were the things I had no idea about!  Like the "money pit" up in Novia Scotia.  Oh my goodness!  That thing sounded so cool!  I actually ended up doing some Googling on it and learned that there is a show on the History Channel just about that!  So now I need to see if I can find that show to watch it!

This book, while it doesn't have a lot of information on any one thing, it has enough information to get your feet wet and to entice you to want to learn more on the subjects that it covers.  This is a great book for those who like to learn random bits of information about things.  And it may just convince them to do some further research onto some of the topics like it did for me!

If you can't tell, I totally recommend this book!

My Rating

5 Stars

This review is based on a copy provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair an honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are mine and mine alone.

Review: The Peddler's Road by Matthew Cody

Title: The Peddler's Road

Author: Matthew Cody

Series: The Secrets of the Pied Piper

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: October 27, 2015

Source: Publisher

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A retelling!  For a story I don't normally run into a retelling for!  So of course I had to give it a shot.

And boy am I glad I did!

This particular retelling, if you cannot tell from the title is of the Pied Piper story.  You know the one?  The one where the pied piper comes and plays his music and removes all the rats from the town.

Well in this one, once upon a time, he did do that...and then the village didn't pay the price that he asked, so he came and took all the children.  Minus one - that kid couldn't make it.  Or at least that is the story the town tells.  But everyone else just believes them to be fairy tales.

Then we come to more of a now time in history and there are two kids, Max and Carter, are in the town of the story with their dad (a person who researches fairytales) and things start happening.

First they see a strange person hiding out in the shadows.  Then they have their house flooded with rats....and then they find themselves in a strange place with all the children of Hamelin that were taken over 100 years ago!

Then from there the adventure starts.  They, obviously, want to find their way home.  And they want to help the kids find their way back too.

Of course, there are giant evil rats in the way.  And some wizards.  And some fairies....  And other creatures...

It is quite a fun story!  I really enjoyed it!  The adventure was actually quite fun, filled with little twists and turns.  The world was very creative too.  There were so many different types of "creatures" and "beings" that we encountered through the whole story.  You never really knew who would turn up next.  And the characters themselves were quite enjoyable.  They all had their distinct personalities, and I found myself enjoying the crass old wizard guy.

There are more books in this series, and yes I am totally going to read them!

My Rating

4 Stars

This review is based on an eARC provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.  All thoughts are mine and mine alone.