Who Was Robert Ripley?

Who Was . . . ? Series

by Kirsten Anderson, Who H.Q., Tim Foley (Illustrator)

Enter a world of shrunken heads, mystic holy men, shriveled aliens, and bizarre relics in the delightfully odd tale of Robert Ripley. Born in California, Ripley began his career as a sports cartoonist. He went on to chronicle global records and oddities in his weekly column, Believe It Or Not! After publishing mogul William Randolph Hearst took an interest in the column, it became a syndicated global success. Ripley spent his life traveling to more than 200 countries in search of strange objects and interesting facts. His penchant for the peculiar launched an entertainment empire, and his collection of artifacts can be seen worldwide at his famous Odditoriums. Believe It Or Not!

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Childrens, History

114 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 5, 2015

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some may Call Robert Ripley crazy, I Call him a Genius.

[Bailey Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it and I have been to his ripley believe it or not places and they are really cool and i loved that book because i learned a lot of cool things about robert and it was a short and sweet book.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't know anything about Mr. Ripley so it was a lot of fun reading this book. He was born in Cali in 1890 and lived his life having as much fun as possible. That's a lifestyle I can get behind.

*He started out as a newspaper sports comic. Back in the day before photos, newspapers used sport comics to illustrate sports news.

*Ripley loved collecting odd facts, one day when he was working on his comics he came up with a page of random quirky facts and called it "Champs and Chumps." It was almost an instant success and it eventually turned into "Ripley's Believe it Or Not!"

*While he was working on getting a good job and didn't have a lot of money, he spent a lot of time in Chinatown. He loved the people he met there and they were kind to him. It started a lifelong fascination with China.

*Bob eventually became famous traveling the world and writing about his experiences. Everywhere he went he gathered odd and interesting facts. His readers loved reading about it. It eventually became a radio show and a tv show. He collected odd artifacts and stuffed his home with them.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

LeRoy Robert Ripley was born on February 22, 1890 in Santa Rosa, California. His father died in 1905. He tried helping make money by becoming a newspaper boy but quit just shortly before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that destroyed that city. This probably saved his life as earlier that morning several newspaper boys were waiting outside the Santa Rosa newspaper office and were killed during the quake. He was always good at drawing and eventually started drawing sports comics as a living. One December evening he was struggling to set up a comic for his deadline as he had a date planned for shortly after it was to be finished. His subject matter was not readily available as there were no football or baseball games going on so he placed some images on the page showing interesting and amazing facts on the page and submitted this to his editor. The editor loved the idea which eventually became a regularly syndicated column in many newspapers of the time. This led Bob as he was now known to adventures overseas. He collected many ideas for the believe it or not stories as well as artifacts. This was the true beginning of his career. The book details all of the steps it took to write all the amazing facts and stories he had gathered throughout his travels. It is an interesting story and well worth the read.

[Sam Wernert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Ripley liked to collect random facts. Along with these facts, he often drew cartoons and sketches. He found an editor and wanted to publish his first cartoon titled "Champs and Chumps" Ripley thought people would be interested to know these weird facts so he continued to create more and they were later published in the New York Globe, and the title was changed to "Believe it or Not!" This book goes through Robert Ripley's life. As a child, he went through a lot (family death, poverty, earthquakes, and more) but all these things shaped him into the person he became. I would use this book in my classroom library, in a biographies section. I think students would like this book but I would warn them about the heavy topics before they begin reading it.

[Mary T · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew nothing about him, aside from the phrase "Ripley's Believe It or Not," so I learned a lot! I had never heard of "sport cartoonists" before. Interesting how much our world has changed since then. We don't have to send someone around the world to tell us about it -- we can see it for ourselves via the Internet.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was interesting. I didn't know that The Believe it or Not franchise we now know started because Ripley needed something to draw and put in the paper in Decemeber. I also didn't know that he helped make it so the U.S. officially had a national anthem.

[Lionheart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rated 5 stars
Ages 12+

[Cassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

The amazing story of the world's greatest professional odd-ball. I love the Who Was... series, kids are crazy about them!

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't know the history behind the man of "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" prior to reading this.

[Yvonne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a lot about Robert Ripley and his legacy. Very interesting individual.

[Jasmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. It was very fun and interesting.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great fun read about Robert Ripley (Ripley's Believe it Or Not!)

[Kaleb Munro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who Was Robert Ripley. Robert Ripley is the great cartoonist and inventor of believe it or not. Robert Ripley is one of the greatest cartoonist to ever live his books. His books fill children's imagination with facts they can't believe. From 1924 to 1954 believe it or not was one of the most popular books in history do you believe it or not.

My Opinion Who was Robert Ripley is a great book with many facts. It is about one of the greatest Cartoonist to ever live. Robert Ripley will go down in history as the greatest, and the most well-known author/illustrator of all time.

I recommend this book too people in third grade and up it's a easy read with only 100 pages it fills you with facts.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

WHO WAS ROBERT RIPLEY? - Kirsten Anderson

This Biography shows the person behind the famous "Believe It Or Not" news articles and series. Robert Ripley was born on February 22, 1890 in Santa Rosa, California. He was best known for his cartoon drawings of people doing the strangest things. Robert Ripley would travel the world to find interesting facts about people and sketch them for the newspapers. He then went on to do radio shows talking about all his wonderful adventures of all the people he had met. After his death, in May 27, 1949 his legacy still lives on in TV shows as: Ripley's Believe It Or Not!! He dared people to believe in the extraordinary.

This book is a great assest to have in an elementary classroom to teach about Biographies. It is an easy to read book with a time line included in the back of the book. The book was just too short for me but then hence the target in mind were probably 2nd/3rd grade students.

[Mikeyrussello · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the book who was Robert Ripley by Kristen Anderson. I read this book because I thought it was interesting to know what a illustrators Life is about. I am interested to read more about this person.
This book is about Robert Ripley. He grew up and started drawing. His mom wanted had to make money for the family because his father has just recently passed away. He was going to be a newsy delivering the local newspaper. He quit his job, that could've saved his life because two weeks after a earthquake hit San Francisco killing 20 newsies.

I read this book 4 out of 5 stars because it is educational and a very good read he used very good language for kids my age I didn't really not like anything about the book.

I would recommend this book to almost all ages because it is great to learn history of sports and drawing.

[Ann Ferber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just like his books, his biography is fun and full of pictures. This book tells kids the story of a guy that a lot of them could look up to because of his crazy and fun life. Children of all ages love "Ripley's Believe Ir or Not" books. In this book it talks about how he was started off as a cartoonist and ended up collecting crazy, unbelievable things from around the world. It talks about his adventures to over 200 cities. It also speaks of his "Odditoriums" that are world famous. This would be a great book to get students into reading informative novels. If they started with a biography on a person they thought was really cool, they could be more enticed to read biographies about other people in history.

[Hayden · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Who Was Robert Ripley" by Kristen Anderson was a great book. In the book it talked about the life of the author "Believe It or Not", Robert Ripley. It talks about how he wanted to play baseball and how he loved to travel the world and get weird facts.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked how he liked baseball because I also live baseball. I also thought it was cool how he went to so many different places. If I could change something about the book I would go into more detail about the places he went.

You would enjoy this book if you liked the other "Who Was..." books. You would also like it if you read the "Believe It or Not" book. I would recommend this to 6th to 8th graders.

[Maddie Terhark · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Woh Was Robert Ripley" by Kirsten Anderson indormed us about the sports cartoonist/ traveler Robert Ripley. It tells us about the journey of his career and travels and how he became a successful cartoonist.
In my opion the book was very informational, but at times i feel like it was piecy. For instance the sentes would talk about one thing in a short sentences and then move onto an unrelated topic in the next sentence like "his career was going great. He had a date." Other that that I learned alot and enjoyed it.
I would recomend this to anyone who likes to learn. But not so much to people who daydream easily. I think it was very good.

[Chelsie Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A review of most of the information I learned about Robert Ripley by watching a PBS documentary. He was an interesting man. A good over view of his life and works.

[Nathaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it. It was interesting. I didn't know who he was.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ❤️ Ripley's Museum so this book was SUPER interesting!

[Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

All about Robert Ripley! This book was fascinating! I was surprised by all the things I learned about him.

[Caleb · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok.

[Twotwo]

AR 5.5

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this today start to finish with my 2nd grader. Interesting!!

[Briana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book!! this book told all abought the beginning of his life, and the end. it even talked about how Ripley's believe it or not! started, it started with how Robert really enjoyed traveling the world and liked sharing people's stories. this is definitely a book that I would recommend to people of all ages.