Travis Harmon and Jonathan Shockley’s Let There Be Facebook (Simon & Schuster) is a witty compilation of major historic, religious and cultural figures and moments presented as though Facebook was always the dominant medium of communication. The authors cleverly connect the old-time stories with modern youth, with the briding ideae that had Facebook been around, these larger-than-life characters not only would have used it like today’s youth do, but their communication would have been streamlined, humorous to a modern audience, and not so different from the way young people communicate today.

What makes this book stand out is its quiet way of forging identifiable connections between ye olde history and young readers. The book mocks and cleverly repackages historic and religious events such as the flight of Jonah, the binding of Isaac, the Black Plague, the adventures of Alexander the Great, the marriages of King Henry VIII, the ride of Paul Revere, Abraham Lincoln and much more.

Larger-than-life figures are brought down to earth and made much more human within the covers of this easy-to-read 142-page book. (Sometimes it is easy to forget that Lincoln, the Wright brothers, Mark Twain and Albert Einstein were mortal, too.) By stretching the bounds and facetiously boiling world events down to brief Facebook status updates, the authors suddenly make history fun and playful for younger readers.

This book could even serve as a good scaffolding tool in middle school, high school and college classrooms in which students who are far more familiar with Facebook than the history book. Such a fun introduction may even inspire curious readers to learn the full story.

Who knows: this entertaining and intellifently plaful book may even  inspire a life-long love of history.

-------------------------

-------------------------