A bold, sympathetic, well-written account of a perplexing and complicated subject.
A meticulously researched account of Mary Surratt, whose still-disputed role in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln led to her becoming the first woman executed by the United States government.
No one disputed the fact that actor John Wilkes Booth fired the shot that killed Lincoln. A simultaneous, fortuitously nonfatal, attack on Secretary of State William H. Seward made it immediately clear that a conspiracy was involved. In the weeks following, with Booth dead, seven men were arrested for the crime—and one woman, Surratt. A widow, devout Catholic, and former enslaver, Surratt owned and ran a boardinghouse where Booth sometimes met with the other defendants. From the start, newspapers reviled her and, during the trial, wrote sexist, prejudicial accounts of her description and actions. The trial itself, run by a military tribunal, was biased in favor of the guilt of the accused. Surratt was sentenced to death, refused clemency by President Andrew Johnson, and hung the following day. The controversy surrounding her execution did not die, however; conflicting testimony by her former boarder Louis Weichmann, in particular, created doubts that persist to this day. Miller does an admirable job of sifting through the often conflicting source material and judicial obfuscation. Her author’s note discusses which sources she most trusts and why. The full truth of this intriguing historical mystery will never be known.
A bold, sympathetic, well-written account of a perplexing and complicated subject. (who’s who, sources, notes) (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-18156-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Random House Studio
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Ephemeral—unlike the art here (some of it, at least) and those fondly remembered little books.
Chicken soup for fans of Golden Books, from the line’s editorial director.
Reasoning that hard times have come to America (“The chickens have come home to roost, and their names are Debt, Depression, and Diabetes”), Muldrow offers this book as palliative. She gathers single illustrations from 61 Little Golden Books and adds pithy captions as anodynes, such as “Don’t panic…” (beneath Tibor Gergely’s 1948 image of a dismayed child holding detached braids) or “Have some pancakes” (Richard Scarry, 1949). Though some of her advice has a modern inflection (“Don’t forget your antioxidants!”), the pictures all come from titles published between 1942 and 1964 and so, despite the great diversity of artistic styles, have a quaint period look. Not to mention quaint period values, from views of apron-wearing housewives and pipe-smoking men (or bears) to, with but two exceptions, an all-white cast of humans. Furthermore, despite the title’s implication, the exhortations don’t always reflect the original story’s lesson or theme; rather than “Make a budget—and stick to it!” the lad in Miriam Young’s 5 Pennies To Spend (illustrated by Corinne Malvern, 1955) actually used his hoard to help others in need.
Ephemeral—unlike the art here (some of it, at least) and those fondly remembered little books. (Picture book. 12 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-307-97761-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Golden Books/Random
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A missed opportunity to offer something special.
Starting with the inauguration of Barack Obama in 2009 and working back to the early 1960s, Hunter-Gault covers many of the significant moments in the civil rights movement, including her own pivotal role in desegregating the University of Georgia.
It was 1961, the year Barack Obama was born, and Hunter-Gault and Hamilton “Hamp” Holmes became the first black students to enroll in the University of Georgia, confronting the racism at the core of the oldest public university in the United Sates. Hunter-Gault places their contribution in the larger context of the civil rights movement from 1960 through 1965, but she has trouble balancing her personal narrative with the many other stories she covers. Given the number of excellent volumes on the subject, this would have been a stronger contribution if Hunter-Gault had focused on her own story; as it is, the book is something of a hodge-podge. Her premise that the civil rights movement was launched in 1960 is questionable, given the many pioneers in the decades prior. Backmatter includes an extensive timeline, articles by other writers on issues of the movement and an extensive bibliography, but there is no mention of any of the excellent works on the subject available for young readers.
A missed opportunity to offer something special. (Nonfiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-59643-605-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2011
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