How They Choked: Failures, Flops, And Flaws Of The Awfully Famous (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
Probably 3.5. It was a fun read, but I liked How they Croaked better. She was trying to do the same thing with this one, and it didn't completely work in every chapter. The tone was fun and sarcastic, and my students will love it. In some of the chapters, it was difficult to figure out what the mistake was that they made. Maybe their whole lives were mistakes? She did a chapter on Betsy Ross, and she was trying to make it look like because Betsy Ross was unsuccessful in her attempts at getting rights for women that she "croaked." I don't agree. I think she set the path for things to come, even though she didn't see it in her own lifetime. This was an informative, entertaining read! Tons of information about the failures, horrifying actions, and heartlessness of historical figures we discuss in our history books. This might be an interesting companion to historical reading, or a lesson in primary source/secondary source references. The section about Amelia Earhart provided me with new insight, and the chapter on Magellan was horrifying. People I considered historical heroes (Thomas Edison, Sir Isaac Newton) . . . . who knew they had such fatal flaws?
What do You think about How They Choked: Failures, Flops, And Flaws Of The Awfully Famous (2014)?
Super middle schoole book. Also good for any age. Seroiusly, Amelia Earhart had some issues.
—pmartinez
Loved it, just not as entertaining as book 1 how they croaked for me
—Julia
Fun historical read about famous dead people in the past.
—Coltone24
