Perplexing People

Perplexing People

Author: Gary L. Blackwood

ISBN: 0761418903

Publisher: Benchmark Books, 2005

Age: 9-12

Genre: Non-fiction

Summary: Perplexing People is the stories of seven well known people throughout history and the perplexing theories behind their lives and deaths.  Was Joan of Arc really burned at the stake?  A woman claiming to be her turned up after she was burned at the stake and eventually married and was praised by the very city Joan of Arc saved.  Was it the real Joan of Arc or was it a pretender? Who was the “Man in the Iron Mask”?   Was it King Louis XIV secret twin brother or was it just a random prisoner?  Was Louis XIV even Louis XIII’s true son?  Did Louis-Charles Capet, the Dauphin of France really die in the Temple Prison during the French Revolution, or was it some other boy? More than 100 claimants, as early as 1797, came forth claiming to be Louis-Charles Capet.  Did he really die?  Did Anastasia really die with her family in the cellar or was she smuggled out to safety?  Who was Anna Anderson? Was she an imposter or truly the Grand Duchess Anastasia?  Who was Billy the Kid?  Did he die in 1881 as most accounts claim?  All these questions and more are addressed in Perplexing People.      

Read A-likes: Unsolved History: Enigmatic Events; Legends Or Lies; Debatable Deaths; and Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland.

Personal Thoughts: This book was a fun read and brings to front several of the more interesting stories of famous people from history.  Some of the stories included are ones I was familiar with and others I wasn’t, so it was good to learn about ones that are maybe not so well known.  This is a good book for young boys because it deals with mysteries related to true, historical stories.