Joy Masoff

I have translated the book for publishing in another language, so I got a very detailed knowledge of it and double-checked many facts the author uses.
I liked the idea of the book - it sells history to kids in a way that certainly will appeal to them.
However, it has a number a bloopers and outright flaws. I will list all incorrect data I've encountered, so that you be aware. some of them are trivial factoids, yet others are more serious stuff, in need to be corrected. I have also discovered that some of the passages match corresponding articles in Wikipedia verbatim. Which inspired which I am not sure, but complemented with several horrible mistakes, these coincidences make me suspicious.

- The guy who invented hard hats was E.D. Bullard, not E.W. as the author states.
- In chapter on Dracula she incorrectly mentions years of life of Countess Bathory (1560-1613), while all encyclopedias list 1614 as her death year.
- in the article on Edison and light bulbs she calls Wilson Swan William.
- wrongly says that Joachimsthaler is named after a city in Germany, while that city is/and was/ actually in Czech Republic/Bohemia.
- She ridiculously claims that Napoleon's misfortunes in Russia from the onset resulted from cold/frosty weather there. The guy crossed into Russia on June 24th with months of fair weather ahead of him...
- She confused German Saxony with British Wessex in chapter on Queens...
- Indian Uprising happened in 1857, not in 1875.
- In The Titanic drama she touches on the story of The Empress ship, which, she writes, sank a few weeks after The Titanic. Yet it actually sank 2 YEARS after The Titanic's tragedy!
- She invented a King for England - Charles VIII, apparently confusing him with Henry VIII. And goes on elaborating on his exploits, stubbornly calling him Charles.
- While listing nationalities of Allied soldiers, who were in trenches of the WWI she mentions even the Canadians and Belgians, but omits the Russians, who lost millions in that war and were one of key forces of the Allied Entente effort.
- Talking about an ancient Chinese zoo, she managed to confuse 1000 AD and 1000 BC, which resulted in her spurious claim that the event was only 1000 years removed from us, while in fact it was 3000 years away...Quite a difference IMHO.… (más)