Catherine the Great

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5

The engaging overview of Cleopatra's life includes interesting anecdotes and legends. Reproductions showing how different artists have imagined the woman may help inspire further research. The biography ultimately chooses accessibility at the expense of details such as specific names of relatives, the languages she spoke, or more on the board games the ruler learned as a child-the latter constituting a missed opportunity to appeal to children. It is impossible to write about Elizabeth I without incorporating the history of her father, his six wives, and the heirs who ruled between his death and his daughter's rise to the throne. Bingham does an admirable job of imparting information that is, for the most part, accurate and engaging and brings in an abundance of major historical figures. One discrepancy is the statement that King Henry VIII divorced Anne of Cleves when technically the marriage was annulled. The Catholic/Protestant conflict is oversimplified, but, to be fair, it is so complicated that it requires a separate book. Catherine the Great's life was filled with political intrigues and family machinations and rivals many fictitious high dramas in its complexity. Raum's largely sympathetic portrayal weaves in anecdotes and historical figures' perspectives. Some passages allude to the problems of the queen's reign, but the book focuses mainly on Catherine's ambition, intelligence, and achievements. Each book includes a time line of its subject's life and contemporary world events, and color and black-and-white illustrations and photographs.-Farida S. Dowler, formerly at Mercer Island Library, WA