Skip to main content

10 King and Queens Who Changed the World


10 King and Queens Who Changed the World
by Clive Gifford
Illustrated by David Cousens
MacMillian Children's Books; 2009; 64 pages


Can you think of 10 kings or queens that changed the world? This question is the main reason that I picked this book up. Some of the rulers found in this book I expected to be in there, some I was surprised they had made the cut, and some I got to learn about for the first time. One that I expected in there was Elizabeth I. One that I was shocked by was the fact that Henry VIII made it in this book. (He actually had other accomplishments other than killing his wives!) One that I wasn’t familiar with was Suleiman the Magnificent, but after this brief overview I can now say I know a little more about him and his reign.

Each ruler has a few pages dedicated to them and their life. The pictures are comic book like pictures. (They are nice, but I think they made Queen Elizabeth I a lot prettier then she really was.) There are also numerous text boxes on each page with other tidbits about the person. While this book wasn’t amazing it was interesting to learn and relearn information about some of the great and powerful people who have made the world what it was today. One person I expected to be in there was King George III because he lost control of the America and lost the Revolutionary War, (which led to the rise of the most powerful nation) but he didn’t make the cut.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Kareem Between

  Kareem Between By Shifa Saltagi Safadi New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2024. Fiction. 324 pages.  Kareem loves football and as he gets ready to start seventh grade he dreams of someday becoming the first Syrian American NFL player. Seventh grade is not off to a great start for Kareem, after football tryouts don't go as he had planned, his best friend moves away, and his mom returns to Syria to help bring his sick grandfather to the US for treatment. So when Austin, the quarterback and coach's son, offers to talk to his dad and get Kareem on the football team in the spring, if he will cheat and do his homework for him, Kareem agrees. Kareem really wants to fit in at school and he is desperate to find a friend, but deep down he knows that doing Austin's homework isn't the right thing to do. And to make things harder, Kareem's mom asks him to be a friend to Fadi, a Syrian Christian refugee. He knows he should stand up for Fadi and help him adjust to the new school,...

Review: A World Without Summer

A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, a Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out Written by Nicholas Day Illustrated by Yas Imamura New York: Random House Studio, 2025. Informational. 294 pages. In 1815 on a small island in Indonesia, Mount Tambora erupted. The blast was the largest in human history, and one of the deadliest. Though it couldn't be understood at the time, the deadly blast half a world away would lead to catastrophic famine in Europe, prompt westward expansion in America, and inspire the novel Frankenstein  by Mary Shelley. The global climate disaster following the explosion also led to inventions like modern meteorology and the early invention of the bicycle. The people living at the time couldn't have seen how everything was connected, but this fast paced narrative assures that readers will. As he did in 2024's Sibert winner The Mona Lisa Vanishes, Nicholas Day does an impressive job of weaving together different historical events into one single, compell...

If You Like...KPop Demon Hunters

KPop Demon Hunters has been one of the most talked-about movies of the summer. If you loved this movie as much as I did, you don't want the magic (or the music) to stop. Try reading these books that touch on some of the same topics and themes as the animated hit! Brick Dust and Bones By M. R. Fournet New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2023. Fiction. 247 pages. Orphaned Marius works in the family business--as their cemetery's ghost caretaker. However, Marius also moonlights as a monster hunter in order to earn the costly Mystic currency he needs to bring his mother back from the dead. As the window to bring his mother back begins to close, Marius's exploits get more and more dangerous, and he may have set his sights on a monster too big to handle on his own. Like Mira, Marius longs for familial connection, and his work as a monster hunter will satisfy the thrill of demon hunting for fans the movie. Where's Halmoni? By Julie J. Kim Seattle, WA: Little Bigfoot, 2017. Comics. W...