Book Review: Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson

About:
Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson is a young adult book about the search for Jon Wilkes Booth and his accomplices after the assassination of President Lincoln.

• 208 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Press
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0545204704

My rat­ing for Chasing Lincoln’s Killer — 5
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More Books by James L. Swanson

Thoughts:
I read Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson because my daughter’s class was reading it in preparation for their class trip to Washington DC. They read it as a class, but my daughter liked it so much she bought the book in the school’s book fair. I make an effort to try and read the same books my kids do (it’s harder now that they’re older) so we can discuss them and, of course, to make sure they’re age appropriate.

The book is straight forward and presents the information in small, easy to swallow chunks. Mr. Swanson makes sections interesting and engaging as not to lose an audience which grew up with a screen in front of their faces.

I enjoyed this book very much, and so the many of the kids in the 5^th grade class. I liked how the author incorporated Lewis Powell’s assassination attempt of William Seward, the how John Wilkes Booth managed to escape to Maryland due to a comedy of errors, after his assassination of President Lincoln.

While history is much more complex and grey then presented here, considering the intended audience I believe the author did a fantastic job presenting the information. The book incorporates pictures and photographs to aid the story.

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More Books by James L. Swanson

Zohar — Man of la Book
Dis­claimer: I bor­rowed this my daughter.
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