Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group - Frances Lincoln Childrens for a copy of Famous Family Trees – Explore 25 Family Trees from History written by Kari Hauge and illustrated by Vivien Mildenberger. This book has chosen 25 people from history and shows you their family trees. Each two page spread contains information about the person on the left page and the family tree on the right page with facts and information scattered within. The book starts with a “How to Use This Book” section at the beginning to help you understand how to read the family trees. In this book you learn about people from Julius Caesar to Martin Luther King, Jr., and includes a wide range of people including William Shakespeare, Ada Lovelace, Mary Shelley, and Abraham Lincoln.

The book is beautifully illustrated and fun to read. Some of the fonts used are very ornate, so a little hard to read and in some places the colors chosen for the font and the background also make it hard to read. Overall this was an enjoyable book that would be good for older children who like history, family trees, or just like to learn about interesting people.

This family tree book is incredibly informative and beautifully illustrated. It presents itself as a children's book, but in fact adults could greatly benefit from it's simple informative style as well.
From Cleopatra to John F Kennedy, this book spans thousands of years, giving us a brief history of important families, what they did and where they were from. Each one has a variety of tidbits as well, facts from the era etc.
I especially enjoyed seeing Charlotte Bronte and Laura Ingalls Wilder represented.

I really enjoyed reading "The Famous Family Trees."

25 famous people along with their family trees illustrates random historical facts from the distant past. The concept of the book is great. By using an unconventional way of retelling history, "The Famous Family Trees" is an unique history/mini bio read for young children. The illustrations are wonderful. The minor issue is the presentations of the family trees since some trees are a little too complex for children to follow.

This could be a great hook for teaching about famous historical figures. From Ada Lovelace to JFK and Cleopatra to Martin Luther King, you learn a little about each figure before delving into their family tree with key figures from the ancestry.

As a fan of genealogy I enjoyed this book, though found some of the trees difficult to follow as there were a number of gaps between the generations. There was also a diverse range of figures represented from all corners of the club and all periods of history.

This book actually made me mad. There are lots of errors. On the page with the Mary Shelley page, Lord Byron’s birth and death dates are 1768-1841. On the Ada Lovelace page they are 1788-1824. Back on Mary Shelley’s page Mary Jane Clairmont was born the same year as her kids. The introduction page talks about the Hapsburg family tree that shows the family from the 13th to 19th centuries and ends with Charles V, who did not live in the 19th century. Mary Hogarth, on Dickens’s page, also has an incorrect death date. These are the errors that immediately jumped out. I’m sure with a closer reading and more knowledge on some of the families, there would be more errors found. And this just irks me. A lot.

The text is hard too small and hard to read.

The idea for this was really interesting and I did find the content informative, but the errors were pretty bad.

I liked the idea of this book, but once it was all said and done, there wasn't much there, there, as Gerturde Stein said about Oakland.

The idea is to take famous people, and show how their families of their family tree were also itnersting people. At least that was what I gathered. Like the Barrymores all went on with acting, and Henry Fonda and Jane Fonda did. Or the way the Roosevelts had famous presidents in their lineage. Or That was what I was expecting.

But, instead, we got examples like Laura Ingles Wilder, where only Laura, and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, went on to do anything, and the rest were just fodder for stories.

The families they picked were interesting choices, but usually only the famous person did something, well, famous.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4783" src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-27-at-2.05.22-PM.png" alt="The Famous Family Tree" />

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4782" src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-27-at-2.07.06-PM.png" alt="The Famous Family Tree" />

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4781" src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-27-at-2.07.17-PM.png" alt="The Famous Family Tree" />

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4780" src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-27-at-2.09.12-PM.png" alt="The Famous Family Tree" />

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4779" src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-27-at-2.09.49-PM.png" alt="The Famous Family Tree"/>

Perhaps there should have been more on each person.


Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

I was so looking forward to reading this book but couldn't down load it onto my ancient kindle! Thank you so much for the opportunity to try!

I had higher expectations from this book. I imagined it would be more fun, but you get a general description of the famous person and then some info on its family. The tree is not made in a fun entertaining way and as a layout I think there was room for improvement. The font is quite small, the text is too much to appeal to the little ones and the art is a bit dull.

I requested The Famous Family Trees as it seemed like such an interesting and unique title! I was not disappointed; it was full of facts and beautifully illustrated!

I would hesitate to recommend this entirely for children; it is a little bit too detailed and confusing to understand at times, but as a book for young adults it is brilliant!

We live in a time when many people are very interested in their family roots and genealogy. Think about the use of all of those DNA testing kits for example.

This book, which I love, looks at the family trees of a number of well and lesser known figures. Just some of the trees featured are those of Mary Shelley, Abraham Lincoln, William Shakespeare, Ada Lovelace, Henry Ford, Marie Antoinette and Queen Elizabeth the First. Some of the families I did not already know included, for example Desiree Clary, a jilted fiancee of Napoleon who later became Queen of Sweden and the tree of the founder of an Indian dynasty. There are fun facts listed for each entry and a bit of history to give perspective.

If you know a budding genealogist or a child who enjoys history, consider getting this book for them. It is a treasure.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Quarto for this e-galley. The opinions are my own.

An incredibly interesting and beautifully illustrated book, continuing in the recent line of children’s books that will no doubt interest and engage both children and adults.

I’m relatively knowledgeable about certain parts of popular history, but even I found myself in surprise at some of the facts and connections revealed in the book. I think it would lend itself incredibly well to further resources for teaching and workshops for an exercise in mapping out family trees - nitjustin schools, but would make a fantastic community or local history project in museums.

My only criticisms are that the writing was a little small meaning that I was often straining my eyes to read along; I also felt that some of the trees could have been extended a little further into present day (eg. Bernice King and her current, prominent activist work within the African American community); finally, as still is often the case with historical books it is dissapointingly centered largely on white/European famous people and their families (and largely male) it would have been a fantastic opportunity to explore some more diverse people and their families.

I am a genealogy buff and was so excited when I saw this book by Hauge. The chance to see twenty-five famous families history is too much to pass up. Mildenberger's illustrations are quite nice. Of the famous individuals included in the book, I rather enjoyed Genghis Khan, Mozart, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Ada Lovelace, Annie Oakley, and Maria Tallchief. The book covers most regions with the exception of South America, Asia, and Australia which is unfortunate. I would have rather loved to see each major region included. The text is far too small for some readers and the use of italics throughout the book is hard on the eyes (remember there will be grandparents and older people reading it to children). I loved how each individual has a small biography about how and why they were famous. This book is a great way to introduce people that may not be normally covered in a social studies lesson.

Thank you NetGalley and Quarto - Lincoln Children's Books for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy from Frances Lincoln Childrens for my unbiased opinion of the book. What a great book to teach children about world history, genealogy, and men and woman represented from all walks of life. I loved the graphics and how it was laid out. This makes a great book for curious kids in your life who is always looking for something to do and learn. I will be giving this book for gifts to every child I know.

I wanted to like this book because of its interesting premise, but I really didn't get much out of it. It provides family tree information and tidbits about 25 famous people from history, including a lot of famous white folks like Shakespeare, the Bronte sisters, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Queen Elizabeth, Ada Lovelace and JFK, along with some of the most famous people of color throughout history like Cleopatra, MLK and Ghengis Khan. Each person has an illustrated family tree showing a few generations and lots of little bubbles of information about them with some random facts.

I don't know much about the lineage of a lot of these people, but I was disappointed to see that Laura Ingalls Wilder's tree did not include her younger brother, who died in infancy. It also didn't mention the man whom her daughter Rose informally adopted in adulthood (Rose helped found libertarianism and she called MacBride her "political disciple," then made him the heir of the entire Ingalls Wilder family's estate).

I was also surprised that there was no mention of one of the most interesting things about Ghengis Khan, the fact that scientists estimate that 1 in 200 men in the world are his descendants because he "spread his seed" so widely. In a book about genealogy, that seems like a pertinent fact. The book makes it appear he had only 3 children and then the tree ends after them. I was also a little put off by the way the writer seemed to glamorize Khan, calling him a "true warrior" and saying that he gave kingdoms the opportunity to "peacefully submit" to his rule. The little bio about him says that he had to deal with brutal life because his father was poisoned when he was young and his family was expelled from his tribe. It says that "he had to hunt and forage for food," which is not that big of a deal even now, much less in those days. It says it's believed that he killed his stepbrother in a dispute about food as a teen, but makes it sound as if that's a sign of how bad his life was and not anything bad for him to have done. Euell Gibbons had to forage for food to survive as a youngster too, but he didn't kill any of his other siblings because food was scarce.

The book is written with a strange font that curls up at the end of many letters, making it slightly difficult to read even for an adult. This gives it a cool look, but at the expense of making it easy to read at length.

In all, it's an interesting book but I'm not sure who its audience is. It seems incomplete as a genealogy book or history book. It's interesting to pick up and skim, especially if you are interested in any of the 25 people covered. I'm not sure how many children would actually get into this type of book, though.

I viewed a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

This book is fabulous, beautiful, detailed and informative. I will definitely use within a educational setting.
Highly recommend.

A great book for kids.
Very brightly illustrated.
The fact boxes are full of interesting tidbits.
I also liked the explanation in the beginning as to how family trees work and how to "read" a family tree.
I found the family trees well laid out once you study them with interesting tidbits on various important members in each family. The illustrations in the family trees themselves are a nice touch for children who are more visual readers than adults.
A nice selection of famous folk - some very well-known and some lesser known, but still just as influential.
My only "gripe" is the font used for the parts of main explanations may be a bit difficult for some children to read.

This is a really different sort of book. It contains the short biographies and family tree of a variety of people throughout history. It is a lovely designed and illustrated book for those of all ages. It is full of lots of little random and interesting facts. This is a thoroughly enjoyable read.

I wanted to read "The Famous Family Trees" because I am a fan of genealogy and I have seen the shows on television. So not only was this a book which I was interested in, it's a book that I was able to share with my child in order to explain how far back family history goes.
"The Famous Family Trees" are not only great stories, they teach a little extra that you don't necessarily learn from some of these "Famous People". It is educational in a fun way, allowing for curiosity to course through their minds and appreciate ones own history. A great book for bedtime reading, but also "The Famous Family Trees" book is great for homeschooling, I can think of great activities for homeschool or regular school with the addition of this book into any curriculum.

Famous Family Trees tackles the family histories of the 25 prominent people in the history. Some of the notable people mentioned in the book are Julius Caesar and the Julia family; Queen Elizabeth I and the House of Tudor; and Abraham Lincoln and his lineage. Reading the short memoir of these 25 people and their kin will give readers the idea that some of these prominent people might have a connection to each other or might have the chance to interact.

My only complaint in this book is that the font size of several of the texts is too small, therefore making them not readable. Some of the texts are in font size 10 or below and young readers will definitely have a hard time reading them, especially if it’s a physical copy. This problem will not arise for the Kindle or e-book format because there is the zoom feature in digital readers.

In general, this is highly commendable because it was carefully and thoroughly research. This book is suitable for middle-grade readers to young adults and even older readers will like this kind of material.

This was a fun and informative book.
This would be great for someone in middle school, it offered a lot of information, but not in an overpowering way.
The illustrations were pretty and it covered a lot of ground.

I think a book with modern prominent figures would be great and maybe a little more interesting for a younger reader.
But I love this premise, I think its a really smart idea.