Chasing Lincoln's Killer - James Swanson

Well, I don't often really hate people, and it doesn't really do any good at all to hate someone who's already dead, but in this case, I just can't help myself. John Wilkes Booth was a horrible, conniving, scheming, evil CREEP! He killed ABRAHAM LINCOLN!!!! And it wasn't just in the heat of the moment, no he PLANNED the whole thing out. Oh, I feel my blood pressure rising again, just like it did when I was reading this story this weekend.

The book itself is very well done. It's very interestingly told, reading like a story not like a history book. This version is the adaptation for kids of a longer book called Manhunt. The author has been interested in Lincoln since he was a little boy. I'm not sure which came first, the chicken or the egg in this case, but the author of this book was actually born on the same day (February 12th) as Lincoln. Not, of course, the same year.

The book gives some background information on Lincoln, his family, the Civil War, and the time period, but it mostly focuses on JWB. It talks about his background a little, his planning/reasoning, and his escape and the manhunt that followed. It includes a lot of pictures, which was really great. I was pretty fascinated, but at the same time the idea of anyone killing the president is just reprehensible. Even when I haven't liked the president, I never wanted anyone to kill him. It's horrifying.

It's a very suspenseful story and definitely kept this reader's attention. I wish there had been source notes in this book, though, to show how the author got his information. WOMS students always have to provide their source information, I was surprised that he did not. I assume it's all factual, but I have no evidence, really, except that the author says so. That's a disappointment in an otherwise very good historical work.

Available at the WOMS library.