Fradin, Dennis B.
DUEL : BURR AND HAMILTON'S DEADLY WAR OF WORDS
New York : Walker, 2008
IL 3-6, RL 5.7
ISBN 0802795838

(2 booktalks)

"As the sun rises on a July morning in 1804, two men stand ten paces apart on a New Jersey cliffside.  One is Alexander Hamilton, a signer of the Constitution.  The other is Aaron Burr, the vice president of the United States.  They are risking arrest -- and their lives -- to fight an illegal pistol duel."

Can you imagine it?  Two very important men setting out to kill each other!  What could possibly have lead up to that moment?

Booktalk #2

Both Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton were orphans, fought in the Revolutionary War with General Washington, were lawyers and ran for political office. However, the two men despised each other and often forcefully disagreed. Finally, the last straw was when Burr lost his election for New York Governor because of Hamilton’s name calling. Burr was so mad that he called out Hamilton to an illegal pistol duel on Wednesday, July 11, 1804 in Weehawken, New Jersey across the Hudson River from New York City. Aaron Burr was the Vice President of the United States and Alexander Hamilton was a signer of the Constitution. Both men fired their pistols. They both staggered and appeared to be shot. One man survived without a scratch while the other man died. Read the book to find out the fates of both men. (Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award nominee, 2011)