The Book of Kings and The Book of Queens by Caleb Magyar and Stephanie Warren Drimmer

These two books have a similar format to The Book of Heroines and The Book of Heroes. I liked them, but I have some problems with the endings and now I'm wondering if I shouldn't check those previous books too.

Magyar wrote The Book of Kings with Drimmer, who wrote The Book of Queens solo. Both include snippets from the other book and generally follow the same layout. Each book is divided into chapters, organizing influential, legendary, or powerful men and women. Kings includes the following sections, "Empire Builders," "Military Masterminds," "Rulers in Revolution," "Lords of Legend," "Kings of Creativity," "Aristocrats of Action," "Kings of Change," and "Kings of Knowledge." Queens has a slightly different lineup, "Empire Builders," "Women of Action," "Revolutionary Rulers," "Culture Shapers," "Monarchs of the Arts," "Legendary Leaders," "Queens of Knowledge," and "Queens of Adventure."

Both include a fairly wide range of people, although it does tend heavily towards Western history and some sections seem to have forgotten to add non-white people. The short biographies are interspersed with information on famous royal jewels, weapons, etc. Kings includes Hammurabi, Agamemnon, Oberon, Babe Ruth, Christiaan Barnard, Isaac Newton, Minakata Kumagusu, Sun Wukong, Coyote, Saladin, and Richard 1. Queens has Empress Cixi, Ranavalona I, Serena Williams, Dolly Parton, Wonder Woman, Kim Swift, Jane Addams, Ellen DeGeneres, Helen Mirren, Maya Lin, Amina, and Jill Tarter.

The portraits are brief, as one would expect in a compendium, not allowing the more complex aspects of the peoples' characters to be shown. Both have indexes and photo credits, but no sources. Both books have inspirational messages to readers in the back. These are what really got to me. In Kings, the messages are "Kings lead by example; Kings are eager to learn; Kings motivate the masses; Kings are confident; Kings have a clear vision." In Queens, the messages are: "Queens lead with integrity; Queens command with courage; Queens respect the role; Queens are passionate; Queens empower their people." There just seems to me to be a disconnect here. Apart from the gendered division into the two books, I felt there was a definite push to admire some male leaders who had done terrible things and gloss over their shortcomings, while the portraits of the women mostly ignored the heavier odds stacked against them.

However, these complaints aside, this wouldn't be the kind of thing I'd give to a kid who was writing a history report or wanting to learn in-depth about these people. This is a book for readers to browse and pick up snippets about people that they can then follow up later. I would have preferred that they divided them up differently - maybe have two books but put all genders together in each and have one be historical and one modern or something.

Verdict: Not an essential purchase, but a nice collection of interesting people to spark kids' interest in biography and certainly a more diverse collection than I've seen anywhere else.

The Book of Kings
ISBN: 9781426335334

The Book of Queens

ISBN: 9781426335358

Published November 2019 by National Geographic; Review copies provided by publicist