What a surprisingly good, interesting, educational, and entertaining book! My niece *loved* this non-fiction book about the different remedies that people throughout history tried, and so did I! The book was extremely well written, very well organized, and although it was lengthy, it was presented in a way that held my niece's attention from the first page to the last. The illustrations were great, too. After we were done with this one, my niece eagerly grabbed the book and began reading it out loud to her mother. It was full of big words and challenging concepts, so I was pleased to see her excited enough about the book to make the effort to read it to her mom.Now then, I'm not entirely sure that it was the best idea to read this book in front of my young nephew. The chapter on leeches and other methods of bloodletting may make him reluctant to visit the doctor in the future, so parents should be advised that some of the material in this book is probably not ideal for sensitive children, or for children who don't yet have a firm grasp on the difference between long ago history and yesterday. Also, there's some fairly gross stuff in here. If you and your child can handle that, though, and you like history and/or science, then this book is a must read.