I Witnessed: The Lizzie ­Borden Story

Gr 7 Up–We all know the rhyme “Lizzie Borden took an ax,” which has stubbornly persisted in popular memory since shortly after the grisly 1892 murders of Andrew and Abby Borden, despite being blatantly inaccurate—Borden was not found guilty, Abby was not her mother, and there were not as many whacks as the rhyme suggests. Kraatz’s and Jayme’s well-researched historical fiction examines the case and provides detail and context that is missed by the generally accepted narrative of the tragedy. Told through the experience of Borden’s neighbor, 14-year-old Charlie Churchill, this blend of fiction and history is less an indictment of Borden or any other possible murderers, and more an exploration of an event that became a viral sensation, predating memes by about a hundred years. Once she is arrested, the country is divided, and everyone, it seems, has an opinion based on very little information. Readers gain a nuanced view through Charlie as he tries to sort out the events of that horrible day, torn between the sensationalism of it all and his levelheaded mother’s gentle admonitions that an opinion cannot be formed without having all of the facts.