Be Vigilant For Truth

There are those placed in any given situation with others who will observe more.  They will notice the smallest of details about the natural world, objects and the mannerisms of people.  In assessing all this information, they can answer questions, draw conclusions and make predictions.

Able to hone these skills with persistence and practice, they may choose to become scientists, veterinarians, sociologists or officers in law enforcement.  The Eye That Never Sleeps: How Detective Pinkerton Saved President Lincoln (Abrams Books For Young Readers, November 6, 2018) written by Marissa Moss with illustrations by Jeremy Holmes presents highlights of a remarkable life.  It focuses on one episode which most likely changed the course of history.

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A GREAT DETECTIVE?  Do You Need To Be STRONG OR RICH OR POWERFUL?

Allan Pinkerton wasn't any of those things.  Born in 1819, he grew up in one of the worst slums in Scotland. But he had sharp eyes, a quick mind, and a hunger for justice.

At an early age he started to devote his life to rights for workers.  He became a wanted man by the British government.  In fact, on his wedding day, he and his new bride fled the country, hidden on a vessel bound for the United States of America.  Upon their arrival in Chicago, he started a cooperage, barrel making, business.  It was highly successful.

In 1847 finding himself in need of lumber, Allan went to an island in the river hoping to get wood.  He noticed the remains of a recent fire.  By going back night after night, he discovered men making small items in the fire.  Alerting the authorities, they broke up a coin counterfeiting ring.  He did the same thing with another group of counterfeiters in another town.  The Chicago Police Department made Allan Pinkerton their first full-time detective.

Within a year, Pinkerton left to start his own agency.  Increasing the business's abilities meant hiring more agents.  They were all taught using the Pinkerton Method and Manual.  In short order their motto "We Never Sleep" earned them the honor of the best agency in the nation.  This success lead to Pinkerton being hired to protect the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad from harm by those wishing to secede from the union.  In this capacity Pinkerton uncovered rumors of a plot to assassinate newly elected President Lincoln.

Sending in his best people, including the first woman detective, Kate Warne, Pinkerton garnered specific goosebumps-inducing details of the scheme and warned President Lincoln. The clever plan Pinkerton devised to thwart this evil was the stuff of page-turning, thrilling intrigue.  Duly impressed with the work of Allan Pinkerton, President Lincoln created a special team to locate spies for the South and to infiltrate the South as spies.  

Immediately we are enthralled with this man's life by the way author Marissa Moss incorporates facts in this fascinating narrative.  We find ourselves cheering for a person with Pinkerton's powerful characteristics and his actions that support these beliefs.  Marissa Moss's precise and thorough research is apparent in the inclusion of specific details and quotes.  Even though you know the outcome of events, you find yourself hardly daring to breathe.  Here is a passage.

Not trusting the mail or telegraph wires, Pinkerton sent an agent, Kate Warne, to set up an appointment so he could meet with Lincoln, then followed her to Philadelphia, the next city on the president's route.  That night, he pushed his way through the excited crowds in the lobby and halls of the Continental Hotel.  People were even gathered right outside Lincoln's door! This city was friendly to the president-elect.  Here the hordes of people weren't a threat.  What would it be like, though, with angry mobs in Baltimore, a city with strong southern sympathies?

The complementary color palette and illustrative style on the opened and matching dust jacket and book case, capture our attention immediately.  The scratchboard technique devised by illustrator Jeremy Holmes here (and throughout the book) is indicative of a historical piece.  The meticulous details in clothing and architecture take us back in time.  

To the left, on the back, a poster with uneven and wrinkled edges is placed on a wooden wall.  It contains the opening statement with several other lines asking readers to discover how this man became

America's greatest detective.

On the opening and closing endpapers is a patterned diamond design in two shades of purple with what appears to be ink blots.  On the title page the eye, the logo for the agency, is centered with text above and below it.  Scroll work frames the words.

With each page turn Jeremy Holmes creates a series of wordless, successive panels in a variety of sizes or large double page pictures with elements encroaching on the text panel.  This visual storytelling has you examining every single image.  Repeatedly the eye(s) of Pinkerton create a beam of light based on his current work.  

The point of view portrayed in the pictures shifts to coincide with the narrative; bringing us close to Pinkerton or giving us a broader perspective in a particular location.  When speaking of the plot to assassinate the president elect three illustration match the text; a close-up of a hand clutching a red piece of paper, President Lincoln and Mrs. Lincoln driving through groups of people in a horse drawn and open carriage and a large picture of the president's stovepipe hat riddled with bullet holes and script reading

The Deed Is Done.

The use of cross-sections, maps, newspaper headlines, typography, and a Morse telegraph alphabet is excellent.  Speech bubbles add to the authenticity and personal aspects.  A final vertical double-page picture highlights a moment of triumph.  

One of my many favorite illustrations is when Jeremy Holmes zooms in on Pinkerton's face.  His nose centers in the gutter with his face extending on either side.  Pouring from both of his ears are bits and pieces of conversations centering on the plot.  Along the bottom of the page and in front of Pinkerton's beard is an engine, coal car and passenger car of the B & O Railroad.  In the lower left-hand and right-hand corners are squares of text framed in tiny lines.

We become willing and avid time travelers when reading The Eye That Never Sleeps: How Detective Pinkerton Saved President Lincoln written by Marissa Moss with illustrations by Jeremy Holmes.  The word cliff-hanger repeatedly comes to mind with this winning blend of words and illustrations.  A time line, artist's note, author's note, endnotes, bibliography and index add to the excellence of this work.  I highly recommend this for your personal and professional collections.  (Fans of this book will enjoy reading The Detective's Assistant by Kate Hannigan.)

To learn more about Marissa Moss and Jeremy Holmes and their other work, visit their websites by following the links attached to their names.  At the publisher's website you can view interior images.  Marissa Moss maintains an account on Twitter.  Both Marissa and Jeremy have Instagram accounts.  Marissa is interviewed by Deborah Kalb about this title.  Jeremy visits Let's Talk Picture Books to chat about this book.  You are going to love all the artwork featured.


Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to discover the other titles listed this week by participants in the 2018 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

Play Ball...

Every spring as soon as the ground thawed and the mud dried up, after school and on weekends, the neighborhood kids headed to the vacant lot on the street for a game of softball or baseball.  When school finished for the summer, day in and day out, we would play ball.  Even when the leagues started, we would still throw together a game when we could.

In 1968 when the Detroit Tigers won the World Series our entire student body gathered in the high school gym to watch it on televisions wheeled in on carts; hearing Ernie Harwell's voice on the radio forever etched in our memories.  America's past-time brings people together in a shared passion.  As evidenced by Barbed Wire Baseball (Abrams Books For Young Readers) written by Marissa Moss with illustrations by Yuko Shimizu, it can be the silver lining in the hardest of times.



Zeni watched the wooden bat thwack the baseball, hurling it high and straight.

From that day forward Kenichi Zenimura (he was eight years old) made his life's focus the game of baseball.  Despite his small stature even as an adult, five feet tall, hardly weighing 100 pounds, Zeni coached, managed and played in two leagues in California.  His skills were so highly respected he played with New York Yankee legends, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, in an exhibition game.

On December 14, 1941 everything changed.  After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Zeni, his wife and two teenage sons, along with 120,000 other Japanese Americans, were sent to internment camps. Their ancestry alone labeled them as potential enemies of the United States.

Rows of barracks filled with rows of cots surrounded by barbed wire fences in the desert of Gila River, Arizona became their new living quarters.  Zeni knew there was only one thing which would keep hope alive; one thing which would make this seem more like home---baseball.  He began alone clearing a space of rocks and desert plants but was soon joined by his sons and other men and boys.  Making the dream a reality had started.

Each time his sons thought the field was ready for play, Zeni would say not yet.  Each time Zeni was aiming for the closest possible authentic baseball park.  A borrowed bulldozer, diverted irrigation, pipes from the laundry room, a clandestine trip in the night, potato sacks and flour all added together with the hard work of many to create a miracle in the middle of the hot sun and arid land.

Try to imagine the first game, the excitement filling the very air as six thousand people gathered to watch.  Zeni was at bat.  He swung.  The ball and his spirit soared out and over the barbed wire fence.


The thorough research of author Marissa Moss is noticeable on the first page.  Using personal details she brings this prominent person of the past to life for her readers.  While some readers will know of the internment camps, few will know how this man's love of baseball transformed the lives of those at the Gila River Relocation Center in Arizona.

Her writing technique, a blend of narrative and dialogue, while informative is full of energy and warmth.  Each portion of the book is as captivating as a work of fiction but even more interesting for readers knowing it's all true.  Here is a single passage.

Zeni stood staring at the dry earth, which was broken up every now and then by a few bits of green.  In all the brown and gray, with a dull, coppery sky overhead, he felt as if he were shrinking into a tiny hard ball.


This is the debut picture book for renowned illustrator Yuko Shimizu.  Rendering the illustrations with Japanese calligraphy brush and ink, scanning and then coloring done entirely in Adobe Photoshop 3 and 5.5, she creates visuals stunning in their accuracy and depiction of the time, place and people.  The picture on the front cover speaks of the depth of character, courage and determination of  Kenichi Zenimura, the Japanese writing in the upper right hand corner spelling his last name as it might have appeared on Japanese baseball cards in the mid-twentieth century.  On the back of the jacket is a baseball with his name in the center superimposed on a barbed wire fence with golden lines extending like rays of a sun.

The cover is different; featuring two poses of Zeni from the inside of the book.  Opening and closing endpapers are a dusty teal sky with textured clouds over a barbed wire fence along the bottom.  The title page is an extension of the endpapers with a single large hand clasping a homemade baseball ticket  including the pertinent information on the right; a clever, meaningful design.  The remaining visuals all extend from edge to edge of two pages, enhancing the text beautifully.  They are pointed, poignant and uplifting.  One of my favorites is Zeni sitting on his cot at night after his arrival at the camp.  A single light bulb dimly lights the room as moths fly around the glow.  He is holding in his hands the photograph of himself standing between Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth with three other ball players.


Author Marissa Moss and illustrator Yuko Shimizu have brought to readers a brilliant rendition of the life of Kenichi Zenimura and his place in American and baseball history in their book, Barbed Wire Baseball.  This is one of those nonfiction picture books which could be used in the study of this time period at many age levels.  It has potential to be used for various discussions on a variety of topics.

An afterword, author's note, illustrator's note, author's bibliography, illustrator's bibliography and index are found at the book's end.  Links to each of their websites are embedded in their names.  Follow this link to a curriculum guide supplied by Abrams.