Summer Reading Reader's Journal Non -Fiction

#3                                                          Reader’s Journal                                            8/9/11

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

            This week I started reading a book called CHASING LINCOLN’S KILLER by James L. Swanson. The genre is considered a biography. I was able to read through this book very quickly because of all the vivid adjectives the author included. He really took an account of Lincoln’s life, which is what really makes it a biography.

            There were many interesting quotes said in this book but the quote on page forty-one sparked my interest most. “Lincoln had not seen Booth coming. The bullet struck him in the head, on the lower left side, just below the ear. The ball ripped through his chestnut-colored hair, cut the skin, penetrated the skull, and because of the angle of Lincoln’s head at the moment of impact, made a diagonal tunnel through Lincoln’s brain. The wet brain matter slowed the ball’s speed, absorbing enough of its energy to prevent it from exiting the other side of the skull through the president’s face. The ball came to rest in Lincoln’s brain, behind his right eye.” I chose this quote because it taut me a lot about Lincolns death in detail. I learned how severe his death was and by reading this biography, it gave me so much detail about everything on his life and what he went through. This quote is to really show you how vivid and descriptive the author wrote this book.  

            I used many strategies before, during, and after reading this book. Before reading I identified what type of genre the text was, which was I biography. Also, I skim and scanned for all the text features including titles, captions, photos, etc. While reading I tried predicting. For example, I thought about what Booth was going to do to achieve his goal, which means killing Lincoln. Another strategy I used was to visualize each scene with the help of the vivid descriptions the author put up. I really felt like I was in the book and at times I might have felt frightened. After reading, I thought about everything I learned about Abraham Lincoln. Also, I compare and contrasted all the new information I learned to what I used to know.

            The tone of this book was serious and adventurous and the mood was to be interested. There weren’t so many signs of figurative language, but the only one I found was onomatopoeia; “ nay the horses screamed as the cavalry came closer and closer.” In this case, the phrase “nay” was what made the sentence onomatopoeia because it is not a real word. The topic was Abraham Lincoln and the main idea is the history about Lincoln’s past and it is implied because it is not clearly stated, meaning the book would have to be read, in order to figure it out. If I were to give this book a new title, I would name it “ The Hidden Mysteries Of Lincoln’s Death”. I would name it this because as I read the book, I noticed that that’s really what it is all about. I also think that by naming it this, it would get people more interested in reading it, and know what they are reading. The supporting details that supported the main idea were that Lincoln was killed in a theater; the death took place during the times of April 1865. This shows that it took place many years ago. Also, Booth had many attempts to kill Lincoln so this wasn’t his first try. The pattern of organization is flash back. This is because the story begins with events leading up to the murder of Lincoln and then the death occurs and then the author flashes back and talks about Lincoln’s life as a president, father, and husband. The essential message was that there would always be people who would disagree with your actions and you would never know how far they would go, just like Booth took the extreme level to actually kill Lincoln. The cause and effect was that Booth was a Confederate and he didn’t believe in Lincoln’s beliefs so that caused Booth to actually kill him. When I compared and contrasted Lincoln and booth, there were not so many similarities between them but many differences. For example, one similarity between them is that they are both important and known people in the American history because Lincoln was a very important American president and Booth shot him. In contrast, they had many differences among each other. Like for example, Lincoln was the president of the United States and Booth was a Confederate. Also, they both had different beliefs and goals in life.

            There were many text features that I was able to locate while reading this book. Like for example, captions, titles, quotations, sketches, and photos. The photos and sketches helped me visualize the scenes and see the location and the people. Also, with the help of the captions I can tell what they are doing in the pictures and sketches. The titles gave me an idea of what each chapter was about. And the quotations helped me view things from the characters perspective and sense what they have to say. The authors purpose is to inform and the authors perspective is objective and unbiased because he has no opinions and beliefs on the subject and he just states facts. The point of view is 2^nd person because the narrator is telling the story.

            While reading this book, I was able to make many connections with it. Like for example, a text-to-self connection I was able to make is with Lincoln because the book states that he was a very strong believer in dreams and goals, just like I am. I believe that if you put your mind towards what you want to achieve, anything’s possible. Also, I wasn’t able to find any text-to-text connections because I never read a book that relates to Lincoln. A text-to-world connection would be that Lincoln was a very important person in the American history and when he was shot, it affected many others.

            There weren’t so many new vocabularies I encountered while reading but I did learn a few. Like for example, assassination means to murder. I used context clue #5, which is when you infer, to find the meaning of this word. In the sentence: “published a few months after the assassination, this work of fiction was filled with exaggerations and lies, but its cover was an accurate depiction of the shooting.” According to this, the context clue is the word shooting. Another word I learned was secede which means to leave out of a membership of a federal union. Like the word assassination, Context clue #5 allowed me to understand the meaning by inferring. Also, Appomattox, meaning a historic site in Virginia, was understood by context clue #4 which is when the text gives an example of the word in the same sentence. Context clue #4 also helped me figure out the meaning of the word proprietor, which means to be the owner of something. The fifth word was cavalry, which means a solder that fought on a horse; for this word, I also used the method of context clue #5.

All in all, this was a great book! I used many sources of information like my prior knowledge to help me understand and read this book. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the life of Abraham Lincoln. I rate this book a 7-10 because it gave me a huge variety of new information! I also was interested in reading the book the whole time!

Love,

Joelle Ben-Nissan