Aaron and Alexander

Reviewed by: Jill O'Connor - North Yarmouth Academy, Yarmouth, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: April 11, 2016

Review

With his signature watercolor drawings and muted palette, including lots of brown, Don Brown illustrates the rocky and complicated relationship between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. Starting with their births, Brown walks a young reader through each man's life and explains how they ended up facing one another with pistols drawn (more detail could have been added surrounding the duel, the subtitle on the cover is "the most famous duel in American history" after all, and only 7 pages of 32 discuss the duel). The biggest drawback is how similar the two men look in Brown's drawings - this may be difficult for young readers. Another slight critique is how few dates are used in the book. There is an author's note that explains a discrepancy in Hamilton's birthdate, but this book would have benefitted from a timeline in the back with three congruent lines: Hamilton's life, Burr's life, and what was happening in US history during their lifetimes. As it stands, it is unlikely that a young reader will pick this book up idly, but it is a great book to use in a class studying revolutionary-era US history.

Overall Book Score: very good