By depicting some famous figures as animals, these board books introduce history in a way that is accessible and fun. The texts contain some basic facts about the person under discussion, while the zany premise yields plenty of humorous puns for prereaders (and the grown-ups who read to them).

A group of crows is called a murder, and no one knows murder quite like the "master of macawbre," Edgar Allan Crow. Spreading his wings in the genres of poetry and horror, he made lasting contributions to American literature that inspired countless others. Paying tribute to the author of "The Raven," Amanda Enright cleverly creates a 19th-century world populated only by birds.