Lincoln and Kennedy: A Pair to Compare

by Gene Barretta, Gene Barretta (Illustrator)

Overview

President Abraham Lincoln grew up in a one-room log cabin. President John F. Kennedy was raised in the lap of luxury. One was a Republican and one a Democrat. They lived and served a hundred years apart.

Yet they had a number of things in common. Some were coincidental: having seven letters in their last names. Some were monumental: Lincoln's support for the abolitionist movement and Kennedy's support for the civil rights movement. They both lost a son while in office. And, of course, both were assassinated.

In this illuminating book, Gene Barretta offers an insightful portrait of two of our country's most famous presidents.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780805099454
Publisher:	Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication date:	06/14/2016
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	1,100,459
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 12.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	6 - 10 Years

About the Author

Gene Barretta has written and illustrated many award-winning books, including Timeless Thomas: How Thomas Edison Changed Our Lives, winner of the Cook Prize Honor from Bank Street College of Education; Neo Leo: The Ageless Ideas of Leonardo da Vinci; and Now & Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin as well as Dear Deer and Zoola Palooza. He lives in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, with his family.

Editorial Reviews

03/14/2016
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. (June)

Publishers Weekly

A New York Public Library Notable Best Nonfiction Book For Children
An NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book
A Pennsylvania Carolyn W. Field Award Honor Book

"Lincoln and Kennedy don’t immediately lend themselves easily to a side-by-side picture-book analysis. Kudos to Barretta, then, who is stunningly successful at creating such a book by pausing at key moments of each man’s life to see what he’s facing and enriching the biography of both by comparison. . .
this will obviously catch the eye of social-studies teachers, but the lively illustrations and inviting approach will entice independent readers as well"—The Bulletin

"The text reads easily, but it’s the cartoonish illustrations—big, bold, and set in cleverly designed pages—that will immediately grab kids’ attention. . . Engaging"—Booklist

“Lincoln and Kennedy is a marvelously original and important book. I can't think of a better way to interest young readers in American history.” —Thomas Fleming, author of Liberty! The American Revolution

From the Publisher

2016-03-30
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)

Kirkus Reviews