How They Croaked: the Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous

Bragg, G. (2011). How they croaked: The awful ends of the awfully famous. NY: Walker.

A collection of true stories covering the details of the death of famous people.  The book's conversational tone and gross facts catch the reader's attention.  In addition to the almost crudeness of facts, Bragg does a nice job of interwining details about the famous people's lives into the explanation of their deaths.  After each person's story, there are more fun facts to read about.  The tone of the book lightens the fact that this book is indeed about death.  Students will most likely find these stories of death humorous, yet intriguing.  The illustrations add to the tone of the book, as they are cartoons.  This book could be used in a unique way when studying famous people.