Who Shot the President?: The Death of John F. Kennedy [Large Print]

Having long held a fascination with the assassination of John F. Kennedy, I was curious to see what this Step Into Reading book aimed at children in grades two through four would say about the event. Written in 1988 by Judy Donnelly, Who Shot the President? The Death of John F. Kennedy gives a surprisingly objective look at the case. Illustrated with a number of color and black and white photographs, this definitely could serve to not only spur a child's interest in reading but impart to the child a deeper sense of American history and tragedy.The book gives a short, rather glowing summary of Kennedy's life, leaving out anything negative, but it gives a good appraisal of Kennedy's final moments. It mentions shots possibly coming from in front of the motorcade (although it wrongly claims no evidence of activity was found in that area), describes the discovery of evidence on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, and covers Lee Harvey Oswald's movements from the killing of Officer Tippet to his arrest inside a local movie theatre. There are several pictures of the assassination, none of which are graphic, of course. There are a couple of shots of Kennedy's reaction to the first bullet, and I was surprised to find two critical frames of the Zapruder film included, as well: the frames just before and after the kill shot - the frame showing the impact of the bullet that killed Kennedy is not shown here, and rightly so in this context. The book goes on to describe Jack Ruby's murder of Oswald, then talks about the Warren Commission Report and the 1978-79 Select Committee on Assassinations of the House of Representatives reexamination of the evidence. Most impressively, it refers to some of the questions that conspiracy buffs such as myself continue to ask, thereby achieving an impressively objective look at this crucial moment in American history. This would make an excellent book for young readers.