Duel!: Burr and Hamilton's Deadly War of Words Book

Fradin seemed to have set out to "right" a history text wrong, so the young readers will know that both Burr and Hamilton were at fault for the famous Duel. But, instead, this reads as if 90% of the rivalry was caused by Hamilton -- making him a highly despicable character, without demonstrating the reasons for his historical and political significance. For very young readers (since this is a picture book history text) this lack of context might be misleading. I also had issue with the first two pages where Fradin tried to illustrate how these "two enemies had much in common, starting with difficult childhoods." But the only example he could come up with was the both boys were orphaned. And there are more differences in these two childhoods: one was born in The Caribbean, the other in Newark, NJ; one was obviously supported by friends and family while the other was whipped by an uncle. When "Aaron" (first name) graduated from Princeton College, "Hamilton" (last name) came to Elizebeth, NJ. <-- this was posed as a "similarity" -- a bit of a stretch, no? Then, their political paths did cross quite a bit. But, if they hadn't had those paths crossed, they wouldn't have had all the rivalry and the final fatal feud. So, it almost seems superfluous to find parallels in their lives.

It's also somewhat odd that the narrative of the duel is presented in italicized text. This created confusion for the reader, especially when the leading sentence of the italicized text follows directly after these words: "On the even of the duel, Burr wrote a parting letter to his daughter Theo." One expects that the next sentence is text of his note, but then one reads, Early the next morning, oarsmen row Hamilton and Burr across the Hudson from New York City to Weehawken in separate boats."

The illustrations are done well enough with drama and the cover is very enticing, but over all, not the most exciting offering.