Inspirational Stories from Real Life Icons

Interesting Stories for Curious Kids – Fascinating Tales of Real-Life Heroes, Remarkable Events, and Historical Wonder to Ignite a Passion for History and Lifelong Learning by Finn Manning; 91 pp

Modern day media is full of reports of disturbance, crime, pop culture, natural disasters, climate change, etc. One would get an idea that everything is gloom and doom and people are just being entitled, ungrateful, selfish, and hastening the demise of the world as we know it. There are few and far between positive stories about people who have overcome great odds to succeed, help, inspire entire populations, and set examples for everyone else to emulate.

In this kind of scenario Finn Manning presents a new inspirational volume titled Interesting Stories for Curious Kids, a compilation of inspirational stories of real-life heroes, incidents in the past that have changed the course of history, people who have changed the world with their simple determination, goodness, and character. “Throughout history, incredible people and cultures have risen who stood out as inspiring. Their stories are carried on to everyone with a curious mind to listen to the tales of their glory,” writes Manning introducing the tone of the rest of the volume.

The book is choc-a-block with 91 pages of brief, interesting, and engaging stories that seamlessly combine historical personalities, and events with current scenario to drive home the lessons that will shape people’s lives. It is obvious the author aimed this book at kids as evidenced by the title, I think everyone can benefit from this book. Children, adolescents, and adults can get inspired from the stories about people who overcame great odds to change the world.

The compact 91-page volume starts off with a chapter on courageous explorers who ventured out of the comfort of their homes and explored the deep oceans, distant lands, and mapped the world. Today with a GPS, fast transportation, and global positioning systems one can go anywhere across the world, but a few centuries ago it was almost impossible. A chapter on innovators and dreamers follows in which people like Nikola Tesla, Thomas Alva Edison, Marie Curie, and many other scientists are profiled and their life journeys explained.

Each personality is introduced in a fun, relatable manner, even children will find this interesting. Young readers learn important history lessons in a fun, exciting, story telling format. The entire book is written in a very accessible tone, which shows a certain amount of respect to the reader. The book stimulates young minds to wonder, ask questions, and dig deeper, be it about science, historical events, or about people. The variety of topics this book covers is something that no text book can do. Encyclopedias would cover them but then they are usually verbose and voluminous. I would recommend this book for every family with children over 8, schools, libraries and any place where people with a curious mind are often present.