some things you might not want to know....

During the summer I read books for kids and books for grown ups.  One of the grown up books I'm reading right now is called At Home by Bill Bryson and it is about the history of how people lived in houses--including lots of disgusting things about the history of baths (people didn't wash at all for hundreds of years), rats (there were houses full of them!) and bed (imagine sleeping on a mattress full of corn cobs!).  It got me thinking about a series that lots of kids find fascinating for all the same gross reasons--the You Wouldn't Want to.... books by John Malm.  These books are full of true, but disgusting and often funny facts about how people lived in the past, from ancient Rome to the 1800s.  Right now we are looking at the book about the Ancient Greek Olympics in school and the kids cannot get over how weird these were.  If you haven't tried these, you might check them out--and while you're being grossed out, you'll probably learn some amazing facts to disgust your parents and delight your friends.  For a good list of these and what people think about them, try this list on Good Reads:  http://www.goodreads.com/series/69410-you-wouldn-t-want-to