He Has Shot the President!: April 14, 1865: the Day John Wilkes Booth Killed President Lincoln

Gr 3–6—On this fateful day, Lincoln planned a carriage ride in the park and an evening at the theater with his wife. At the same time, John Wilkes Booth planned to kill the president. Here, Brown tells the story of that day and its aftermath, with a clear and engaging narrative style, covering not only the assassination but also other attacks planned by Booth and his friends: the stabbing of Secretary of State William Seward and a planned attack on Vice President Andrew Johnson, which never came to fruition. The narrative continues with the story of Booth's flight and capture, Lincoln's death, Seward's recovery, and the fate of Booth's coconspirators. The narrative reads like fiction, though Brown is careful to stick closely to his source material, and only when a person's words are known does he include the quotations as dialogue. The book's end matter consists of a brief bibliography, though sources for specific quotations are not cited. Brown's muted but action-filled illustrations add visual interest and occasionally help convey information, such as showing the layout of Lincoln's box at Ford's Theatre. Most libraries will find this a useful addition to their collections as the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's death draws near. This should be an interesting and illuminating title that serves as a good introduction to the topic for young people, and some readers may wish to move on to James L. Swanson's Chasing Lincoln's Killer (Scholastic, 2009) for more in-depth coverage of the subject.—Misti Tidman, Licking County Library, Newark, OH