Poison: Deadly Deeds, Perilous Professions, and Murderous Medicines

Poison: Deadly Deeds, Perilous Professions, and Murderous Medicines is Sarah Albee’s latest non-fiction book about how humans have poisoned one another over the years. From Cleopatra’s poisonous skin cream to coal miners’ glowing jaws, this book will terrify and amaze you.

The author makes a serious topic funny and super interesting. The “Tox-Box” sections (which have scientific names, sources, how the poison is delivered, etc) would be good if you were doing a report, but I liked the more mysterious sections called “Poisoned or Not,” “Drop-Dead Gorgeous,” and “Good Work if You Can Survive It,” as these were more interesting and entertaining.

I don’t know if it’s the final colors, but the pictures are only done in green and black, which gives it a nice, eerie look that matches the title. There are a lot of historical pictures with captions and a timeline at the end of the book.

I think this book is probably best for kids at least 10 years of age because there is a lot of text, and it’s a subject that might scare younger kids. I recognized a lot of the people mentioned in the book from studying history, so I think other kids who like history might be interested in this book, too. If you’re not squeamish you might survive reading this book!