Duel!: Burr and Hamilton's Deadly War of Words [Hardcover]

Dennis Brindell Fradin (Author), Larry Day (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 24, 2008 | Age Level: 7 and up

In the early morning hours of July 11, 1804, two men stood facing each other on a New Jersey cliff side. One was the U.S. vice president, Aaron Burr, and the other was Alexander Hamilton, the secretary of the treasury. They were ready to fight to the death for honor. 

These Founding Fathers, once friends and colleagues, had become the bitterest of enemies. After years of escalating tension, Burr had finally challenged Hamilton to a duel. In the end, only one man survived, but their infamous rivalry lives on.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 3–6—Fradin's account of the Aaron Burr/Alexander Hamilton feud makes compelling, child-appropriate reading. The author vividly shows how some aspects of politics have not changed over the past 200 years, including negative campaigning and smear tactics. The account is short and fast moving with Fradin choosing key points in Hamilton's and Burr's lives that illustrate how they arrived at the duel. Describing events from their difficult childhoods, their service as aides to George Washington, their work as lawyers in New York and in positions in federal government, the author demonstrates that both men were to blame for the situation. His focus remains consistent in leading up to their final confrontation in 1804. Beginning with an arresting close-up perspective of Burr's dueling pistol on the front cover, the illustrations capture attention and convey details of the topic. The characters' expressive faces add emotion to the facts. Rendered in watercolor and gouache with pen-and-ink accents, the pictures are realistic, but not in a photographic sense. Incorporating primary sources in a dramatic style, Duel! presents a gripping view of men revered by history but not really known.—Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Fights are always attention getters, so even children who don’t know much about Aaron Burr (third vice president of the U.S.) and Alexander Hamilton (a signer of the Constitution) will be hooked by this dramatic picture-book account of their deadly quarrel. Not that Fradin makes the duel heroic in any way; in fact, he plainly states that both men were at fault. What the two had in common was a difficult childhood, and the book’s opening pages, illustrated with stirring paintings, tell the stories of the boys, alone and desperate. Both men also took part in the American Revolution; battle scenes show each engaged in combat. When Fradin deals with the divisive politics, Day’s ink, watercolor, and gouache illustrations ably show the body language as the enemies furiously confront one another, stalk off angrily, and fume alone—until their secret fight becomes public. Then comes the duel itself. Tension builds for several pages before Hamilton is shot (he dies the next day), leaving Burr in disgrace. The words and art humanize the history for children, who will welcome the bibliography that can lead them to more facts. Grades 3-6. --Hazel Rochman --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 7 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers; First Edition edition (June 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802795846
• ISBN-13: 978-0802795847
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 9.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,680,691 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"I have the time of my life as a children's author," says Dennis Brindell Fradin, prolific author of close to one hundred and fifty books. "I try not to let a day of the year go by without working." Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, he earned a creative writing degree from Northwestern University, then taught elementary school for twelve years. In 1989, the National College of Education honored him as the Educator of the Year. He is married to writer Judith Bloom Fradin, who did the photo research on this book. They live in Evanston, Illinois and have three grown children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Richie's Picks: DUEL!, May 9, 2009

By 

Richie Partington "Richie's Picks" (Sebastopol, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Duel!: Burr and Hamilton's Deadly War of Words (Hardcover)

To me, it has always been those who dealt with words and ideas -- such as Jefferson and Franklin and Hamilton -- who are so much fun to study and who are so central to gaining an understanding of what America is really all about. That Alexander Hamilton's life ended during his forties was clearly tragic for the nation in that it forever deprived us of the continued wisdom and perspective of one of the great minds behind the founding of America. Even back before I became familiar with Hamilton's writings, it just seemed so terrible that his life had ended in a duel. (Just think about how much more civilized life is in the Twenty-first century: Today he and Burr would have been dissing each other on competing cable talk shows and blogging scurrilous tidbits about one another online.)

"The next day Burr lost the election for governor. He was furious that Hamilton's name-calling had again played a major role in his defeat.

"Burr could have written a newspaper article blasting Hamilton or asked to meet with him to iron out their differences. Instead Burr sent Hamilton notes demanding that he apologize for his remarks -- or fight a duel.

"Hamilton could have apologized or arranged to meet with Burr to make peace. Instead he accepted Burr's challenge."

One of the benefits of great, nonfiction picture books for older readers is that they can turn us on to new topics and catch our interest without our having to invest more than a few minutes. The book should sell itself with its eye-catching cover featuring the extreme close-up perspective of being just behind Hamilton's coat and gun, as he faces Aaron Burr.

While we may not have an interest in reading at length about Alexander Hamilton or Aaron Burr before learning about their deadly altercation in DUEL! BURR AND HAMILTON'S DEADLY WAR OF WORDS, there will certainly be a few readers who are enticed to go on to learn all about the philosophy and writings of Alexander Hamilton thanks to Dennis Fradin and Larry Day's storytelling.

"Then they hear, 'Present!' -- the signal that they can aim and fire."

Or, perhaps, in a few years, a reader of DUEL! will be doing research for a project in American history and say to himself, "Oh yeah, that Vice President who shot his buddy while they were out hunting."

Err...whoops...no...That's a different Vice President-with-a-gun story...

3.0 out of 5 stars Erroneous Description, January 18, 2012

By 

Jintili (New Jersey, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Duel! Burr and Hamilton's Deadly War of Words (Hardcover)

This is a comment on the editor's description of the book and not on the book itself. The description refers to the duel between Hamilton and Burr as being between the "secretary of the treasury" and the U.S. "vice president". First of all, Hamilton was Secretary of the Treasury from 1789-1795. Therefore, when the duel took place in 1804, Hamilton was no longer Secretary of the Treasury but rather an attorney in private practice in New York. Secondly, the titles "Secretary of the Treasury" and "Vice President" are just that: titles. As such, they should have been capitalized in the editor's description.

Thirdly, one would be hard pressed to describe Burr as a "founder", as stated in the description. One hopes that the content of the book is more accurate than the blurb describing it.