A review by swtmarie
Jonas Hanway's Scurrilous, Scandalous, Shockingly Sensational Umbrella by Josh Crute

3.0

An interesting factual picture book tracing the time when an umbrella was introduced in London. Even though umbrellas had already been long invented, they weren't common in London where the umbrella was looked at as something a "poor person" would own, who couldn't afford a carriage. But meet Jonas Hanway, a sensible "gentleman", who visits Persia and upon his visit, comes across this wonderful device that someone is holding above their head. He is amazed at the wonder (and also very sick of getting wet from all the rain in London!) so he brings it back and starts a trend..but actually he doesn't. Instead of applauding this wonderful contraption, people scoff and look down at him because 1. he's a man carrying an umbrella and 2. he's a gentleman who can afford to use a carriage. It takes over 30 years for people to gather their wits about them and fix the solution of traveling in rainy London without getting overly sopped. What surprised me were how mean the coach drivers were and one apparently tried to run poor Jonas over because of his "threatening" umbrella ..threatening because he may cost them a job when people stop using the coaches to get to and fro. I enjoyed the timeline in the back and the other various tidbits in the back of the book.