Assassin [Hardcover]

Anna Myers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 2005

Would you betray your president to win the heart of America’s most celebrated actor?

Bella isn’t evil. But even people with good intentions can end up doing bad things. Especially when they meet people with the power to persuade them to do almost anything, like John Wilkes Booth—the most charismatic and famous actor of his time.

So when Booth sets his sights on Bella, an assistant seamstress to Mary Todd Lincoln, to help with his plot to kidnap President Lincoln, he is able to persuade her to betray her president and even turn her back on the boy she has loved her entire life. Bella believes Booth is only trying to force the North to release Southern war prisoners, and will not harm her dear friend Mr. Lincoln. But the kidnapping plot fails, and now Booth will stop at nothing--even if it means harming Bella in the process.

Anna Myers has crafted a provocative new look at the Lincoln assassination through the eyes of both a young White House insider and the assassin himself. An author’s note provides the historical background to this tragic event.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up–Through the device of a fictional young woman interacting with historical figures, Meyers provides readers with a glimpse of the people, events, and surroundings of a dramatic time in history In alternating chapters, John Wilkes Booth and Arabella Getchel, a 14-year-old White House seamstress, relate the story. Booth's unstable emotional state is revealed in his zealous passion for the Confederacy and intense hatred of the Union as symbolized by President Lincoln. The novel offers a good opportunity for discussion about the assassin, his motivations, and, in this case, how he drew an unsuspecting girl into his scheme. An author's note delineates truth from fiction.–Denise Moore, O'Gorman Junior High School, Sioux Falls, SD
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In alternating chapters of first-person narrative, Myers novel tells of Bella and an actor she idolizes, John Wilkes Booth. After her mother's death, eight-year-old Bella goes to live in Washington City with her grandmother, a seamstress at the White House. Over the next six years, Bella attends school, develops one close friendship, learns to sew, takes her grandmother's position at the White House, moonlights in the costume shop at Ford's Theatre, and is befriended by Booth, eight years her senior. Meanwhile, Booth travels to Charleston for the hanging of John Brown, finds success on the stage, suffers through the election and later the reelection of Lincoln, and develops alliances that he hopes will be useful as he plots against the president he despises. Myers has taken on an ambitious project, given the novel's dual-narrator structure, its lengthy time frame, and the burden of conforming to the main facts regarding historical figures and events. One of the greatest difficulties is writing convincingly from both an adult's and child's point of view, but she carries off the project credibly. Suggest this to readers who enjoyed Gary Blackwood's Second Sight (2005); readers wanting more facts may want to try James Cross Giblin's excellent Good Brother, Bad Brother: The Story of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth (2005). Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers (August 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802789897
• ISBN-13: 978-0802789891
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #471,958 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read, but not for my ten-year-old, November 25, 2008

By 

KHauge (MN, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Assassin (Paperback)

I read this book myself after my ten year old brought it home to read as a reading assignment. I am glad I chose to screen it, because I did not find it appropriate for her age group.

The book was so good, though, that I could not put it down. I was intrigued by the historical detail intertwined with Arabella's fictional character. My heart pounded and I tried to imagine if these were indeed Booth's thoughts, or if his were more evil. A real page-turner.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars assassin, March 15, 2007

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Assassin (Hardcover)

"He noticed me then. I could feel his eyes on my burning face, but I looked only at the hem of the coat I held in my lap. My heart pounded as I heard his steps on the floor..." The book Assassin written by Anna Myers is about the story of Arabella Getchel and John Wilkes Booth. They tell their stories of what happened during the Civil War in the U.S. I liked this book because it has the views of two very different people telling about how they felt towards the war and their own lives. This book wasn't that good since it was a historical fiction book.

The book didn't spark my interest that much with the historical fiction part of the book, but it did spark me with the cause and effect action of Arabella. Cause and effect happened in most cases, such as, when Wilkes, as John Wilkes Booth liked to be called, tried to persuade Bella, as Arabella liked to be called, into helping him kidnap President Abraham Lincoln. At her part in the book, which switches off every chapter starting with Bella, she felt she had to decide between her father and Mr. Lincoln. While I was reading I was thinking on how she acted for the Union throughout the whole book unto this point, and so I thought she was going go with what she knew was right.

Another thing that kind of got a spark going was what I learned about Wilkes in this book. I know it's not accurate but it does say he felt strongly for the South I didn't know he was that distinct about what he calls his "beloved South," even though he was born and from Maryland which was in the North.

This book seemed like it was written for someone who likes books like Across Five Aprils or any other books that have to do with the Civil War and fictional people. I didn't like the book that much because it was historical fiction. I like present day books made for teens.

I recommend this book for someone in 5th or 6th grade that like historical fiction. Its interesting turns in its plot would make these people keep reading the book.

T. Shepard

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bella and Wilkes: the attraction of contrasting personalities, November 11, 2006

By 

Gerald R. Hibbs "gerbear" (Edmond, Oklahoma United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Assassin (Hardcover)

Anna Myers has long been considered a shining star in the world of young adult fiction and her light does not diminish any in this book. It is the on-going, intertwining story of John Wilkes Booth (a real character who killed President Lincoln and Arabella "Bella" Getchel (a fictional character)who fell victim to Booth's charm. Myers has obviously done her homework in the case of Booth and the progression toward his final, terrible act. The facts are accurate, the story intriguing, our identification with Bella complete. A terrible event in history is portrayed in a way that holds the attention of the reader. Little more can be asked of a writer.