Brad Meltzer

Meltzer and Mensch have put together a detailed account of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination attempt, but it isn’t the one we know about. It’s an attempt that was thwarted largely by the founder of Pinkerton’s Detective Agency, Allan Pinkerton in 1861 before Lincoln had been sworn in as our sixteenth president. The book’s style is conversational and accessible, and, in parts, hard to put down. It will appeal to readers who aren’t necessarily drawn to history. It’s a great story, show more with or without its historical significance. And lastly, “The Lincoln Conspiracy” does a great job of filling in some of the blanks left in history’s portrayal of the great sixteenth president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. We see Lincoln as a sensitive human being and not necessarily just as the awkward, self-taught small town lawyer from Illinois we’ve come to know in our school history books. I appreciated this part of the book as much as the mystery. I enjoyed this book a lot and think most readers will. show less

This biographical story about Helen Keller is fantastic; I love how it's written in a first-person narrative style. Elementary-aged children will be able to easily understand and connect with Helen Keller, as the first few pages show how she was just an everyday, ordinary girl during the first part of her life. Then, at 19 months old, she became sick and subsequently lost her vision and hearing. The author shares her frustration and difficulty in finding ways to communicate. I especially show more liked the four boxed illustrations on one page that show the signals that Helen used to say "Father," "Mother," "baby sister" and "cold." The importance of Anne Sullivan as her teacher was crystal clear and the author didn't shy away from the frustration and torment Helen felt while learning to communicate, especially at that time when there were no resources for persons who were blind and deaf. I love how the "invisible lines that stretch between" people, from heart to heart. There's an interactive (raised dots) Braille alphabet and the word "Helen" in Braille in the middle of the book. Students will no doubt love to learn and practice their names and other words in Braille. After her story, the author shares Keller's quest for learning and helping others -- helping women vote, help the poor survive, help others with disabilities get the same education she had, and more. Students, especially those who love comics, will be drawn in by the white speech bubbles on each page of the story. The caricatures are overdramatized (especially the mouths) to mimic comics as well. The real-life photographs of Keller, along with a timeline from her life along the bottom of the last two pages, are powerful as well. show less

The authors begin this history of a lesser-known assassination attempt against John F. Kennedy with a brief review of the resurgence in white Christian nationalism in the US beginning in the 1920s, and the linkage of white supremacy, anti-Catholicism, anti-Semitism, and fear of immigrants. Those who considered themselves “native born” (by which they clearly meant white and Christian, since they were most certainly not “native”) felt the need to fight back against the “invasion.” show more By the 1960s, many in the country still shared those sentiments. [Indeed, those sentiments still fuel a portion of the population.]. This was when Kennedy was trying to become the first Catholic to be elected U.S. President.

One person in particular in 1960 who embodied that nativist mindset and was vehemently opposed to any power going to Jews or Catholics was Richard Pavlick, a 73-year old man living in Belmont, New Hampshire. He was vocal in his grievance, writing a number of letters, including to Protestant ministers, alleging that “the safety of the United States can only be preserved by controlling or eliminating those ideologies foreign to the American way of life. . . . " (Sadly, as the authors document, Pavlick would have found willing listeners in the Reverends Billy Graham and Norman Vincent Peale, who had formed a group to work clandestinely in the background against Kennedy.)

Kennedy addressed anti-Catholicism head-on, but Pavlick, like many who are devoted to an irrational ideological position, was impervious to reason or enlightenment.

What is known about Pavlick and his actions don’t fill up an entire book however, so the authors also highlight some other ways in which heightened security became an essential part of guarding a young, active family. The authors focus on Jackie, because she had such an aversion to publicity, and yet, to her dismay, became the focus of obsessive interest by the press and public.

A parallel emphasis in the book, only tangentially related in that it concerned Jackie’s life, was the serial infidelity of JFK, and the ways in which Jackie was known to cope with it. As the authors write,

“. . .both JFK and Jackie grew up in environments where the powerful wealthy men felt entitled to do as they pleased, especially when it came to women. Both of their fathers had little regard for consequences, and their mothers were expected to endure and suffer silently.”

This characteristic of Jack provides the only negative note about him; otherwise he is presented as sui generis: handsome, brave, charismatic, and eloquent (although they do credit his speech writer for enhancing that latter trait).

Evaluation: This book was written much like a crime thriller, and included interesting forensic details about how Pavlick was caught before he was able to carry out his dynamite-fueled scheme. The details about the lives of the Kennedys have always been fascinating, especially to those who grew up dazzled by their youth, energy, intelligence, and idealism. [Unfortunately, many don’t understand that just having the Kennedy name is not a guarantee of those qualities.] In any event, this short book is entertaining, and a reminder of times when, at least in our rhetoric, this country stood for something more than greed, grift, and a war *against* minorities and the less fortunate. show less

I had honestly forgotten I'd already read this years ago (Really, over a decade ago? Wow...) until I came to Goodreads to add it. Luckily, I had also forgotten the plot so it was like reading it for the first time again. This really is a fantastic plotline about how superhero secret identities are meant to protect the heroes' loved ones. So when someone starts attacking and threatening them, the DC heroes declare war to find the perpetrator.

Reading this again with a different eye, I still show more loved the story but found parts of it very problematic. For one, it focused almost exclusively on male superheroes - no women heroes had their family members targeted. Given who the murderer was, it sort of made sense, but still seemed very skewed. It never really showed a women hero worrying about a loved one, as if that protective instinct was only reserved for men, though there were two panels showing Dinah and Zatanna standing at their fathers' graves. Meltzer could very well have had a brief scene of Barbara calling her dad; instead, we get a flashback of her getting shot by the Joker.

It's hard to reconcile a really powerful storyline with the paternalistic undertone. The story is supposed to make the reader feel uncomfortable, though I'm not sure this is a facet that the author had intended. While Dinah and Zatanna had major parts to play in the plot, they were never a POV character - and it was an odd choice to make Ollie Queen one, I thought.

A good -- if problematic -- read. show less