The Frightful First World War

Horrible Histories #21

by Terry Deary, Martin Brown (Illustrator)

The First World War was a war fought on a global scale: a war so terrible and deadly that they called it "the war to end all wars". From foot soldiers drowning in mud to fighter pilots being blown out of the sky, it was absolutely hideous from start to finish. So if you like your history horrible, this is the book for you! Find out: * What the 'Fat King' did with food scraps and dead horses * How sniffing your own pee could save your life in a gas attack * Why a pair of old socks gave away top German secrets Get all the frightful facts about the First World War - with all the gore and more!

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Childrens, Humor, Historical, War, World War I

144 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

A former actor, theatre-director and drama teacher, Deary says he began writing when he was 29. Most famously, he is one of the authors of the Horrible Histories series of books popular among children for their disgusting details, gory information and humorous pictures and among adults for getting children interested in history. Books in the series have been widely translated into other languages and imitated.

A cartoon series has been made of the series of books and was shown on CiTV for a period in 2002.

The first series of a live-action comedy sketch show of the same name was shown on CBBC in 2009 and a second series is due.

Terry is also known widely throughout children and adult reading groups alike for his True Stories series (see below for series list).

He received an Honorary Doctorate of Education from the University of Sunderland in 2000. His numerous accolades also include the Blue Peter "Best Nonfiction Author of the Century" Award in the U.K.

-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Samin_pzr · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب جالبی بود و تاریخ رو با زبان طنز نوشته بود، به نظم برای شروع و اشنا شدن با وقایع تاریخی مناسبه✨
———————————————-
تاریخ قادر است ادم را بترساند ولی هرکدام از ما وظیفه داریم نزدیک ترین بنای یادبود جنگ را پیدا کنیم و اسامی حک شده روی ان را بخوانیم و بعد با خود بگوییم: این فاجعه دیگر نباید تکرار شود…
اگر همه ی مردم این جمله را از اعماق قلبشان باور داشته باشند دیگر هیچ گاه جان کسی بیهوده تلف نمیشود….

[Amir Z · Rating 2 out of 5]

تری دیری نویسنده ای مهم است. مجموعه تاریخیِ درخشانی که نوشته جذاب است. نشر افق همچنان جلدهای دیگری از این مجموعه را منتشر می کند.

[Dov Zeller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one isn't a graphic novel, but it has a lot of graphics and comics in it, so I will keep it on the graphic shelf.

I tend to really like "Horrible Histories" and pretty much anything Terry Deary does, though the humor is often groan-worthy.

This book is great. It's easy to read and gives the reader a sense of how the war started; how it ended; how it affected the lives of civilians as well as soldiers, young and old, men and women, and to a certain degree wealthy and poor; it makes pretty vivid the hunger and discomfort so many suffered and the outlandish propaganda that kept people fearing the 'other side'; there are stories about mice, lice and other vermin and the flu that took more lives than the war. Some of the stuff I found most disturbing was about the shootings of soldiers by their own armies as punishment for abandoning their post (and regardless of the circumstances). I enjoyed reading about the homing pigeons and about women's participation in battle.

In the book are included: rhymes, slang and sayings of the time; first hand accounts; timelines; bios of various people and other animals; comics; historical commentary. It's a solid and entertaining introduction to the war for middle graders and a nice book for adults, too. Sometimes maybe it tries to hard to entertain, but that's sort of what the series is all about.

Here's a bit of slang from one of the comics in the book. Readers have a chance to work out the meaning before reading a translation. "I'd love a bon baby's head, followed by a dog and maggot, washed down with gunfire..."

Translation: I'd love some nice meat pudding followed by bread and cheese, washed down with a cup of strong tea..."

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Judging for what it is ( a small book with pictures and more anecdotical than deep) is an entertaining book to read

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite passage in this book is this song people in England used to sing
"My Tuesdays are meatless
My coffee is sweetless
Each day I get poorer and wiser.
My home is heatless
My trousers are seatless
My God, but I do hate the Kaiser."
The book includes authenic recipes from the time and encourages people to remember that both sides of the conflict were people.

[Su35 · Rating 5 out of 5]

جنگ جهانی اول. رویدادی تاریخی که همه باهاش کم و بیش آشنا هستیم و صدها کتاب کوچیک و بزرگ دربارش نوشته شده.
ولی این یکی، خیلی فرق میکنه. مثل همیشه تو مجموعه تاریخ ترسناک، به جای صرفا بیان کردن اتفاقات تاریخی، آقای تری دیری عمق فاجعه رو بیان کرده. وضعیت غذا و شرایط زندگی مردم و سربازان در جبهه یا در پشت جبهه، و وقایع اسفناکی دراین باره بیان شده.
از غذاهای عجیب و تقلبی در هنگام قحطی گرفته تا حیواناتی که نقش مهمی در جنگ ایفا کردند!

[Mahdi · Rating 5 out of 5]

برای من که زیاد حوصله خواندن کتاب های تاریخ را ندارم و دز دبیرستان از این درس متنفر بودم کتاب خوبی بود.
البته حالا اگر سوالی برایم پیش بیاید دنبال تاریخ می روم ولی این کتاب باعث شد بدون اینکه سوال خاصی در مورد جنگ جهانی اول داشته باشم به سراغش بروم.

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book was really interesting and informative i love horrible histories its so good and terry deary is such a good author and martin brown's illustrations are hilarious

[LJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the Horrible Histories when I was a kid. In fact, I was reading them long past the age they were aimed at. However, coming back to them as an adult what really stands out to me is that Deary doesn't cite any of his sources. I have no idea if any of what he writes in these books is true or where he got his information, so they are pretty useless as educational tools. I guess they are meant to be a jumping off point to get kids interested in history in the first place. All of that sounds very general, but I don't really have anything to say about this book in specific even though I just read it. Sure, some of the stories in it were interesting and I would like to know more, but since I don't know where any of this information came from, I can't. Great for kids, don't revisit as an adult.

[Mary Francis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first trip into the Horrible Histories world - and I think the first of many! The detail gone into this is amazing. I’m a little beyond school age but I genuinely learned so much and was engaged through its entirety. There was a range of presentation styles which made it both appealing to children and constantly accessible: there were poems, comics, letters and other sources, quizzes, and so much more! I also liked the fact that it gave quite a balanced portrayal of the different sides – it did not simply glorify the British soldiers or exclusively portray the struggle endured in the UK. For instance, there is a sensitive passage on p62 about how the war caused widespread German starvation. It includes some great stories that you can hardly believe are real, such as my personal favourite ‘Cher Ami’ the brave pigeon (p99). Finally, the epilogue perfectly delivers the message that this is a tragedy never to be repeated, and sensitively portrays the horror that was the First World War.

[Dane Cobain · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Horrible Histories series was consistently good throughout, but The Frightful First World War still manages to scare away the opposition with terrifying tales of trench foot, dead soldiers and dead horses. Deary's writing is evocative and informative at the same time, and he delivers the perfect book for kids who love to read and who love history with the gory bits left in.

World War I marked a period that we should never forget, and it's as important as ever for our youngsters to learn all about it. This is a great way to introduce them to the topic while entertaining them.

[Siobhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a child history was one of my favourite school subjects thus making Horrible Histories the perfect books for me.

Nowadays children have the television series yet I belong to the older group that had the books. Personally, I believe any child who has an interest in history should give these books a go. They’re truly gripping and so many topics are covered.

Honestly, Horrible Histories are well worth a read.

[Zane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very quick, easy and fun read that touches on the various effects and realities of World War 1 with which my students can more easily relate. I had my students select certain readings, decide if it was a cause, effect, or reality and then do a role play for the class. A fun and interesting way to learn about history.

[Kimberley doruyter · Rating 5 out of 5]

if i had had history like this in school i might have stayed awake ;)

[Omid Milanifard · Rating 3 out of 5]

مجموعه کتابهای تاریخ ترسناک روایتی طنز و تلخ از تاریخ بشر هستند. بیان واقعیات سیاه در قالب تصاویر و زبان طنز استعداد زیادی لازم داره که تری دیری صاحبشه.

[سارا · Rating 5 out of 5]

اگر مثل من چیزی از جنگ جهانی نمیدونین
برید بخونیدش
اصلا نگاه نکنید مال نوجوانه
واقعا اطلاعات خوبی داد👌🏻

[Adina Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful way of discovering the past which IS NOT BORINGGG !

[Xanthi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frightful, indeed. This series brings history to kids, warts and all, whilst still written to their level. There’s a lot of romanticism attaches to this particular war so these sorts of books are useful, especially aimed at younger generations, to hopefully nip that in the bud.
And there’s no harm in reading this as an adult, like I have. I certainly still learnt a few things from this book.

[Abigail Yarwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked it because it had lots of random interesting facts. I love history but this had different stuff to most history books or the stuff we learn at school.

[Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is takes a humorous take on the First World War as does all the other books in the series. It is split up chronologically by each year including the first shot, total war, the Somme, mud and exhaustion. Timelines are used well to get events in order. It is a very creative book that uses a range of captions, mixed media like poems and newspaper reports. The reader is really taken into the mindset of the people at the time with a lot of interesting random facts.
I like this book as it manages to put a light touch on a war that was so awful, without demeaning it. There is so much information packed in the book that isn’t in most history textbooks. The pages are varied due to pictures, captions and mixed-media. The main reason I like the book is because I enjoy history and in particular I feel WW1 is often overshadowed by the Second World War.
This book is suitable for KS2. A range of activities could be worked on. Pupils could use the book as a starting point to find out what life was like as a soldier in the Great War. Trench Warfare in particular could be explored. Poem could be written linked to soldiers’ experiences. Children could use other resources to make a timeline of main events. Propaganda posters could be looked at and pupils can make their own. The class could discuss why the war was called the Great War and why it is important.

[AnzacPuppy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book which deals with the first world war. The things that I enjoyed the most are the different anecdotes about the truth of this conflict. This little stories tell about all the funniest details of the war accompagnied by original illustrations. Although all the stories aren't really connected to each other, they are interesting enough to be read. Unfortunately, quizzes are overwhelming.

[2C · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is entitled "Frightful first world war". It was written by Terry Deary and illustrated by Martin Brown and it was published in 1998. The story is about the first world war and how horrible it was. It is a documentary book with a lot of fun facts and anecdotes. What we enjoyed in the book was the illustrations and the way they speak about the facts in the story making puns and jokes throughout the book. The downside was that there was so much of gore and horrible things...

[Alex L · Rating 5 out of 5]

After 1 year, I still find myself revisiting this book after I bought it in London. It shares all of the most horrible, terrible, facts about WW1 mixed in with a slight touch of humour.

[Farah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great revision of sorts on world history 😉

[Sofian · Rating 4 out of 5]

When World War starts everything bad and horrible that can happen actually happens from starvation and eating fake food to slaughtering animals,woman, and children which are all innocent and young boys started playing a game called "Steal food from other kids" because they were running out of food quickly from the men who were fighting in the war after a little bit of time women wanted rights to fight in the war it worked in Britain but did not work in Germany even though women in Germany were very hardworking.

I think a book about history and war mixed with comedy and questions to test your teachers about what happened in history Now that is just golden but I have one problem not a big one I just wish the books were a liitttle bit longer I mean I wanted to read more of the book but it was only 130 pages which isn't bad but hope my wish comes true on the other books and one more thing I loved that at the end of the book they said that there was a mistake and somebody got lucky and survived from a British shell and he lived to start another war and his name was Adolf Hitler. Thank you for the good book.

[Grayson]

Frightful first world war is a book is about the 1st world war during the time of 1914 to 1918 how it became what it did, why it happen, where the war did stuff. It first gives you some background knowledge about the war in the first seven pages including a timeline. On the eighth to tenth page, it gives you the story of how the war began and how weird it was that started the war, on page fifteen through the end, it gives you descriptive stories and history about the war and what the people did. The book gives you a good amount of pictures to give you a visual of what you are reading.

I choose this book because I like learning about the history of anything with death and blood and other gory things. The other reason I choose this book is that I did not know much of world war 1 and I in world history so it did help me a bit. The book is very entertaining by the way it gives you the history with the jokes and the pictures. I would recommend this book to people who like war and war history. My favorite part is how the would pee in there boots so there boots don't get hard. Read horrible history if you need help with history class it WILL help.

[Elise_romane]

A well done book,
Writin more as a documentary than as a fiction. The author Terry Deary has written a lot of other books before this one but all from the series Horrible Stories.
His books has been consistently in the bestseller lists since 1994.
These books are sold over 25 million copies worldwide and have been adapted as television series, theatre tours and museum exhibitions.
This book is filled with true facts about the soldiers life in the trenches during 1st world war. If you read this book you would be surprised about some of the facts.
I personally did not find this book very catchy because there isn't really a story, it's just facts even though they are put in a chronological way and some of them can even be funny.
One thing that really helped me read it is that there are pictures and tiny comics on the sides.
I would quallify this book as a good but not exellent book for the reasons above.
I would recomend this book to people who like to read true stories but keep in mind that it is a book easy to read so I would also recomend it to beginers or even to kids.
One of my favourite moments is in one of the tiny comics.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

The details of the dreadful war that affected everyone, from peace-loving protesters to the suffering soldiers. There are ropey rhymes and sad songs, rotten rules and sinister superstitions. Here is the horror and the hardships of World War I, which lasted for four years.

The world wars where my favourite subjects in history at school, I find the first world war fascinating but also incredibly sad i had family that served both Wars so it hits home for me so its a subject i know quite a bit about. And this is what i love about this book and the series in general is the fact that you learn things you never would of thought and as the name states just how horrible war in the trenches was for both sides, if it wasn't already obvious, and this book holds nothing back it really goes as deep as it can with the subject matter and how dark it really was. I love how tasteful this book handled the still raw subjects for many people. It was really good, there was a moment at the end that speaks about how this war shouldn't of happend and i agree it shouldn't have but the writer hopes that we learn from the horrific events of this war and the second that we reflect and try and prevent anything like this happening ever again in our future. And if that's not a good note to end and reflect on then i don't know what is.

5/5 Stars on GoodReads 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

100/100 GingerPoints 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Going through all of the details of the First World War is always a bit of a trial when you’re in school so actually having something that puts it into easy to understand terms as well as making sure you don’t get too bogged down by dates and names is really really important if you want the information to stick for longer than the time it takes to actually read the book.

I think because there are so many major players in WWI, it becomes more and more difficult to follow along with some of the facts and then you end up not enjoying what you’re reading or actually taking anything from it at all.

One of the things I have always appreciated about the HH books is that there is no judgement when there is a discussion about war. Especially for something like WWI or WWII, where there is a lot that you could pin blame on. So I appreciate that there is a real effort not to do that here and instead just present the facts and allow the reader to come to their own conclusions.

[Joackim B · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Horrible history of the World War I” was written by Terry Deary.
This book is a historical book addressed to children, with lots of
jokes about the war. The book is a social satire.
The book is not really a novel, it explains each event
which happened during the first world war and doesn’t have
any chapters or any narrator. It’s a compilation of anecdotes,
funny stories and real events of first world war simplified.
Each part is better than the last one, but if we have to
choose one it could be the game of the free prisoner, because
it’s very funny and comic. It consists to let a grenade in a
prisoner’s pants pocket and make him run as fast as he can
and he’ll burst because of the grenade.
The book is full of black humour. The illustrations are
suitably expressive and the comic style will engage readers. It
is wonderful and easy to read.
We would recommend it to anyone who enjoys wordplay,
and anyone who wants to learn the soldiers’ life who fought
during the war.