Lincoln and Kennedy

March 14, 2016
Barretta (Timeless Thomas: How Thomas Edison Changed Our Lives) compares Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy in a project that provides an adequate overview of their lives, but can’t help but evoke the (oft-debunked and derided) lists circulated online for years that dwell on superficial coincidences between the men and their presidencies. Employing visual and verbal parallels throughout, Barretta’s caricatured illustrations and conversational narrative highlight the discrepancies and similarities between Lincoln and Kennedy throughout their lives, from their childhoods to how they met their wives, the tragic losses of family members, their career explorations, and their ascents to the presidency; Barretta compares Lincoln’s role in the abolishment of slavery to Kennedy’s efforts in support of civil rights, before examining their respective challenges during the Civil War and Cold War. Endnotes provide additional trivia about and quotations from both presidents, but a bulleted list of coincidences—“Lincoln was shot in Ford’s Theatre; Kennedy was shot riding in a Lincoln (made by the Ford Motor Company)”—feels more targeted to budding conspiracy theorists than historians. Ages 6–10. Agent: Lori Nowicki, Painted Words.

April 15, 2016
Barretta adopts a familiar narrative device, contrasting the lives--separated by a century--of presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.On facing pages and within spreads, he presents similarities in the two men's lives--some monumental, others mere oddities. Poignantly, the Lincoln and Kennedy families each lost two children, one before and one during their lives in the White House. Barretta portrays each man's relationship to civil rights, collating Lincoln's successful 1860 election with the new Republican Party's opposition to slavery. The ensuing Civil War weighed heavily: "Lincoln agonized over the casualties on both sides of the battlefield. In his eyes, every soldier was still an American." In 1863, Lincoln met successfully with Frederick Douglass, previously his critic. In 1963, Kennedy proposed new civil rights legislation, met with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and declared that the descendants of slaves were not fully free. The nation would "not be fully free until all its citizens are free." Barretta's full-bleed watercolors caricature both people and events. Two maps with keys--one depicting slave and free states, the other, the Soviet Union and communist countries (all unnamed)--are weak elements. The jumpy, back-and-forth format renders the achievements and complexities of each man less intelligible then a linear presentation would, and the assassinations are trivialized by a bulleted list of coincidences.Marred by its own contrivances. (further facts, trivia, unsourced quotes, glossary, sources) (Informational picture book. 7-10)

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June 1, 2016
Grades 2-4 Perhaps jumping off the list of Lincoln-Kennedy coincidences that surfaced not long after JFK's assassination, this entertaining picture book details what the two presidents had in commonbut also notes the myriad things they didn't. Initially, that's a lot: one had a hardscrabble childhood and grew up to be a Republican; the other was a silver-spoon Democrat. But both fought for their countries, served in the House, lost children, and took up the causes of African Americans. Though the similarities between the men's personal and political lives become less obvious as the book continues, especially when it tries to link the Civil War with the Cold War, Barretta nonetheless gives children a capsule look at those struggles and other historical events. The assassination of both presidents, of course, ties them together once more. The final pages offer lists of presidential trivia and quotations as well as sources. The text reads easily, but it's the cartoonish illustrationsbig, bold, and set in cleverly designed pagesthat will immediately grab kids' attention. An engaging lead-in to more substantive biographies.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)