GHOSTS OF THE CIVIL WAR

In her newest kaleidoscopic American history tour, Harness (Ghosts of the 20th Century, 1999, etc.) spirits young Lindsey away from a modern reconstruction of a Civil War battle for a look at the real thing. Guided by the ghost of Abe Lincoln’s son Willie, Lindsey witnesses, invisibly, events leading up to the war, several of its major battles, behind-the-scenes glimpses of city and plantation life, and finally Willie’s father’s assassination. Rather than overt violence, Harness depicts crowds of increasingly weary-looking soldiers and civilians, surrounded by busy swirls of maps, vignettes, and hand-lettered quotes, captions, facts, and statistics—all of which encapsulate the war’s causes, issues, and, to some extent, long-term effects while providing a portrait gallery of historical figures. The barrage of information may bewilder readers new to the topic or author, but anyone who has studied the Civil War, however superficially, will find this an engrossing, wide-ranging, refresher course. (Picture book/nonfiction. 9-12)