Customer Reviews

Famous People in History: Volume 2 (v. 2)

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I entertain my minivan-bound children with books on tape/CD. The best are the Harry Potter series. There are many other good ones. And this is a good non-fiction title for children.

Kids need heroes, and this tape provides my 5 and 7 year old boys with some impressive ones. The heroes come from the worlds of politics, science, literature, religion... This tape is one of my 7 year old son's favorites. It has a very positive message for him. He gets ideas of what he could be.

Volume 2 (the one I have) tells the stories of some historical figures, emphasizing all the positive and heroic qualities of each: Alexander the Great, Joan of Arc, Leonardo Da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Ludwig van Beethoven, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, Mahatma Gandhi, and George Washington.

As an adult accustomed to having his heroes routinely discredited, I find these idealized portraits naive, but kind of refreshing. If you have kids you know that they have a purpose: to introduce you to the world again, and show you its wonder. These portraits of heroes are simplified and abstracted in a way that highlights their abilities. No jaded cynicism here. These scientists, thinkers, statesmen, musicians, were all leaders. My young leader could do worse than to select a role model from one of these larger than life heroes.

Two other notes.
1. The tapes are abridged, while the CDs are not. Buy the CD.
2. Amazon has one description for both volume 1 and 2. Misleading. They contain different people.

Vol 1 - Queen Elizabeth I, Abraham Lincoln, Christopher Columbus, Horatio Nelson, William Shakespeare, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Vol 2 - Alexander the Great, Joan of Arc, Leonardo Da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Ludwig van Beethoven, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, Mahatma Gandhi, George Washington (This is the one I am reviewing)

Got 3 of the series for when my 7 and 10 year old grandkids would be spending a week with me. We planned trips to the museums and observatory and how nice it was to see a statue carved by the person you had been listening about on the tape, or see an early telescope credited to Galileo after listening about his life. It just rounded off the educational/fun travels perfectly! Recommend the one on Greek legends, historical figures and famous scientists. All of them. (Greek legends was the most fun). And I learned so much myself!