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Summary
Summary
Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one.
Here's middle-grade nonfiction that reads like a thriller. With murder, court battles, and sensational newspaper headlines, the story of Lizzie Borden is compulsively readable.
In a compelling, linear narrative, Miller takes readers along as she investigates a brutal crime- the August 4, 1892, murders of wealthy and prominent Andrew and Abby Borden. The accused? Mild-mannered and highly respected Lizzie Borden, daughter of Andrew and stepdaughter of Abby. Most of what is known about Lizzie's arrest and subsequent trial (and acquittal) comes from sensationalized newspaper reports; as Miller sorts fact from fiction, and as a legal battle gets under way, a gripping portrait of a woman and a town emerges.
With inserts featuring period photos and newspaper clippings-and, yes, images from the murder scene-readers will devour this nonfiction book that reads like fiction.
Author Notes
Sarah Miller writes historical fiction novels for children. Her novels include Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller, The Lost Crown, and The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden and the Trial of the Century.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-In 1892, Lizzie Borden, a well-to-do young woman from Fall River, MA, went on trial for the brutal murder of her father and stepmother. Miller lays out the facts of the case in painstaking detail, chapter by chapter. Investigating newspaper reports and affidavits and providing historical context for modern readers, Miller crafts a superbly researched work that reads like a thriller and asks probing questions about media bias, sexism, and what lurks in the darkest recesses of the human heart. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Miller (The Lost Crown) presents an exhaustive look at the famous unsolved murders of August 1892, in which Abby and Andrew Borden were found killed by axe in their home in Fall River, Mass., and of which Andrew's daughter (and Abby's stepdaughter), Lizzie, was accused. Starting with the morning of the murders, the narrative traces the events leading to Lizzie's arrest, then details her time in prison and her trial. Miller relies on newspaper accounts and court transcripts to create lively scenes filled with authentic dialogue, making for a suspenseful crime story, which is all the more intriguing for its lasting doubt. Numerous sidebars provide background on subjects like legal proceedings and mourning dress, point out the differences between newspaper coverage of a testimony and the testimony itself, and explore topics of side interest, like what the Bordens ate for breakfast-all of which immerse readers in the life of that era. Photos, diagrams, and Miller's thoughtful note on researching the book combine with the energetic text to engage readers in their own debate as to Lizzie Borden's guilt or innocence. Ages 10-up. Agent: Wendy Schmalz, Wendy Schmalz Agency. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Lizzie Borden took an axe, / Gave her mother forty whacks. / When she saw what she had done, / She gave her father forty-one. Today, Miller writes in her introduction, everything most people know of Lizzie Andrew Borden is contained in those four singsong lines of doggerel. And nearly everything in those four lines is wrong. Miller then proceeds to relate both the immediate events leading up to the crime and the arguments for and against Borden that would eventually be used in the legal proceedings. The details sometimes can seem overwhelming, but by giving a play-by-play commentary of this whole affair, Miller is able to examine not just the enigma of Lizzie and the Borden familys dynamics but also various swaths of late-nineteenth-century American social, cultural, political history that often receive extended treatment in sidebars. She also draws heavily on primary source quotations along wth interspersed maps and photographs, and everything is documented in the notes and bibliography in the back matter. The Borden Murders joins the growing body of narrative nonfiction that, despite reading like a novel and looking like a novel (in terms of its trim size), nevertheless scrupulously hews to the facts. jonathan hunt (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
This true-crime narrative examines the question that mesmerized the nation in 1892: did Lizzie Borden kill her father and stepmother? With an evenhanded approach, the author crafts a gripping story full of well-documented dialogue drawn from legal records. Lizzie Borden was the 32-year-old daughter of a wealthy but frugal businessman in Fall River, Massachusetts. She quickly became the prime suspect when Andrew and Abby Borden were bludgeoned to death in the home she shared with them. A conviction would result in the death penalty. After a brief prologue, a short section describes the gruesome scenes when the bodies were discovered, followed by an introduction to the Borden family. The rest of the chapters chronicle the investigation, hearings, and trial. An initial "Who's Who" keeps the many players straight, while diagrams and photographs of the Borden house help readers picture the layout. Frequent sidebars, integrated gracefully into the text, add context. The detailed narrative separates fact from fiction, discussing and sometimes dismissing rumors and sensational newspaper reports. It's hard to get a sense of personalities due to lack of reliable information, but the courtroom scenes are vivid and exciting. The high-appeal topic will attract many readers, and the suspenseful account will have them trying to solve this still unresolved murder mystery. (author's note, endnotes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 11-15) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Lizzie Borden's trial for the murders of her father and stepmother captivated her contemporaries, and her story became fodder for salacious gossip and fanatic newspaper coverage. In this even-handed account, Miller sifts through misinformation to deliver the facts, scant as they are, and recount the intricacies of the court case that drew thousands to tiny Fall River, Massachusetts. Beginning with the morning of the murders, Miller pieces together the events from sworn testimonies and the more reputable articles from the period. Since the most reliable information came from court records, most of Miller's account takes place in the court room, which can occasionally become dry, particularly given the obtuse nature of nineteenth-century writing. Nevertheless, Miller frequently uses the case to clarify sometimes-muddy details about the law, such as the difference between an inquest and grand jury. Gory details abound, but Miller is careful not to take a side. Plenty of photos, informative inset boxes, and an extensive bibliography round out this well-researched resource, which invites students to think critically about an infamous story.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2015 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
Lizzie Borden took an ax, Gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one. WHILE MANY YOUNG people with a passing interest in American pop culture may have heard this disturbing ditty, it is unlikely that they know much about the person behind the rhyme or, as Sarah Miller puts it, that "nearly everything in those four lines is wrong." Miller has written two historical Y.A. novels, but "The Borden Murders" is her first nonfiction work. It's an engaging - and at times extremely graphic - moment-by-moment narrative of one of the most bizarre murders and trials in American history, even if the woman at the center remains, as Miller admits, "an enigma - a symbol of either tortured innocence or insensible evil." The basic facts are these: On the morning of Aug. 4, 1892, in Fall River, Mass., someone violently murdered Lizzie Borden's father, Andrew, and her stepmother, Ab by, in their home by striking them in the head with an ax. Thirty-two-year-old Lizzie was accused and then acquitted of the crime after a 13-day trial. She always claimed to be innocent. No other person was ever implicated in or confessed to the murders. Like a historical version of "Law & Order," the book chronologically reviews and defines the case in lively prose, from the gruesome discovery of the bodies to the jury's final judgment, drawing from primary-source witness statements and testimonies. Miller presents the macabre subject matter so objectively that readers will find their opinions of Borden's criminal potential shifting from chapter to chapter. Even Miller's epilogue is equivocating. Though she concludes that most scholars agree with the jury's verdict, she also states that "we may never know" if Borden was "truly innocent." Readers will have to decide for themselves. The wealthy Bordens were slaughtered in broad daylight, and only Lizzie and the family maid, Bridget Sullivan, were at home when the murders occurred. Miller explains that suspicion fell on Borden not only because of her thin alibi (she claimed to be searching for fishing sinkers alone in the family barn) but also because of her admitted dislike for her stepmother. It did not help that the unmarried Lizzie's stoic demeanor was seen as "chilly" by many male authorities, including one police officer who found it "troubling" that she did not cry when questioned. Neighbors and family members called her "a woman of a bad disposition" and "very strong-willed." Even though the murder weapon was never recovered and the investigators could not find "one tangible link between Lizzie and the crime," Borden was arrested and put on trial. She was found not guilty as conflicting police testimony and procedural bungles in her initial interview further weakened the prosecution's already entirely circumstantial case. But despite her acquittal, Borden continued to suffer in the court of pubAc opinion, as newspaper readers across the country greedily consumed the salacious story, told with exaggerations, half-truths and lurid headlines. The Boston Globe even printed an entirely false story purchased from a shady detective that described "an illicitly pregnant Lizzie Borden hacking up her stepmother in plain view of the neighborhood and buying the maid's silence." Though the story was retracted and The Globe printed a front-page apology, Borden's reputation was tarnished beyond repair. That autumn, the eerie little rhyme eventually known by many but understood by few became popular with FaA River children. While the murder and trial are shocking enough, Miller's chronicle of newspapers' disregard for the truth also provides a jolt, and may hit even closer to home, calling to mind the excesses of social media today. It's not hard to imagine the trial unfolding on Twitter - #AxeMe Again Lizzie, #BloodyBloodyBorden - and it would take just hours instead of months for the pubAc to judge and convict her. This may be the best lesson young readers can take from Miller's unexpectedly topical book. In an age when amassing "Akes" often takes precedence over reflecting on what is true and what is not, we need to keep in mind how others' lives are affected by the tales we tell. JENNIFER HUBERT SWAN is the director of library services at the Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School. She blogs at Reading Rants.