The Trial

This book is very interesting and even if you never heard of the Lindberghs case (like me) it is a very good, amazing, historical fiction book.

The Trial by Jennifer Bryant doesn't start out as much, but turns into a suspenceful mystery. It's about a girl that lives in a town where not much ever happens. It's set in the 1930s when the Lindbergh baby is kiddnaped. This book is about the trial of the Lindbergh baby through the eyes of this twelve year old girl. She is there at the trial to help her uncle who has broken his arm and can't report the trial. Katie is a very quiet girl whose life is changed by this trial. Another character is Bruno Richard Hauptmann who is accused of murdering and killing the Lindbergh baby. At first he doesn't sound like he could be a murderer, but later he leaves you puzzled. My favorite scene is when they find Bruno Richard Hauptmann is found guilty. It suprised me because I felt like it came out of nowhere but at the same time I was expecting it. I felt sad knowing that someone was going to lose a husband and someone was losing a father, but I felt a little bit of joy for the family that lost their baby because of this man. Over all this was my absolute favorite scene because all at the same time I was feeling different emotions. I think that this book was pretty easy to read but it wasn't so easy that I could read it in five minutes. I was a little disapointed because it was easy to read and I think that next time I want to pick a more challenging book. Something else I was disapointed about was what the story was about. I was expecting it to be more about the Lindberghs. Instead it was about a girl and her point of view of the trial. Even though it wasn't what I thought it was going to be I still loved the story.

Imagine you were a famous husband, father, pilot that was the first man to ever fly across the Atlantic Ocean alone. You have every thing you could ever want. On a cold, windy night on March 1, 1932, between 7:30 and 10 pm you walk in your new born baby's room, where the baby should be asleep and you see your baby is gone. You noticed there is ladder in the windows Well that's what Katie Leigh and her little town go to a trial for in the The Trial by Jen Bryant. Until the trial Katie was convinced that her town is boring and nothing that ever happens even if Mr. Lindbergh, the first man to ever fly across the Atlantic ocean alone, lives in her town. For two years the police have been looking for the killer of his child Charles Lindbergh, Jr. At first Katie came home from school and found out that there would be a trial in her town and the police believed that Bruno Richard Hauptman could be involved with the killing. Millions of people would come from all over the United States to see the trial. Katie and her uncle Jeff a news reporter get to go to the trial everyday. Katie writes every word that she hears and even has a scrap book so this is a big thing for Katie. If you like a true mystery then this book is for you. It's and exciting, can't put the book down story. I loved this book and I loved the way Jen Bryant explained every thing. So pick it up and read it and good luck putting it down.

It's not possible for me to be 'chatty' about this story. Jen Bryant writes in free verse about the year of the "Bruno Hauptmann Trial" ending in February 1935. When I read the story she has embroidered around this event my mind plays a newsreel of all the happenings of those three years following the kidnapping of Anne & Charles Lindbergh's baby son from their New Jersey home. Growing up in New York State the trauma of those times affected me deeply. 'Kidnap' was a scary word, a frightening thought. Men who found their way to our back steps asking to trade their labor for meals also seemed frightening. How different from today was the media clamor then? The insatiable, dogged press? The celebrities coming to see and be seen? The pseudo souvenirs? The doubts? The inescapable and never-ending suffering of all involved? (The author tells us there are annual reinactments of The Trial even today). And more doubts? Hauptmann who went to the electric chair still claiming his innocence, is quoted as saying, "They think when I die, the case will die. They think it will be like a book I close. BUT THE BOOK, IT WILL NEVER CLOSE"The author hopes the book will help readers "clarify their own concepts of truth and justice." In the Author's Note, Bryant writes "The economic realities of the Great Depression, the rise of the mass media, the country's fear of war and need for emotional escape, all combined to make the Flemington (NJ) trial a true national spectacle."The graphics are appropriate and clever; the 'chapter headings' copy old Smith Corona type. 'Versified' stories happen to appeal to me; I hope they do not put off young people (especially boys) who could "osmose" some 1930s history as well as those concepts mentioned above.Jen Bryant weaves stories into this sad history and has developed them against the backdrop of an ordinary town with characters that are likeable. Seventh-grader Katie Leigh Flynn, who acts as a pinch-hitting court stenographer for her temporarily disabled journalist uncle, has troubled moments, real for her age. She grows through the experience and there is a perspective shared in this retelling that offers some healing.REVIEWER MCHAIKU suggests that "THE TRIAL" is good reading, and another 'Young Adult' book ripe for adult consumption.