The Angry Aztecs and the Incredible Incas (Horrible Histories)

The Horrible Histories series was introduced to us by a former teacher. They are a lot of fun. They are informative and my 9 year old likes to read them and share what he learns with us. While you might be able to make an argument with some of these books and say that they are not in depth, these histories share more information in a short book than we have found in our history book on the same subjects. For example, The Aztecs are only covered in about 3 paragraphs and the Incas are barely mentioned in my son's history book. These books are short, easy to read and often include a recipe (using current ingredients), stories, cartoons and drawings that are relevant and more. I really liked this one on the Aztecs and the Incas because you do not learn nearly enough about this fascinating time and cultures.

There has been some criticism of the Horrible Histories as misinformed and simplistic, but this particular volume is wonderful. I've studied the Aztecs by looking at the Florentine Codex and reading scholarly works on the subject, and the "Angry Aztecs" gets quite a lot of the information right. It is written so kids can understand it, but anyone with a sense of humor should enjoy it. It is certainly better than the 2 pages devoted to the Aztecs in the textbook I use to teach high school history!

Excellent product...as almost ALL of Terry Deary's works...highly recommend this for kids and adults (especially college students)!