Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake) | J 973.924 BAL | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | J 973.924 BAL | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
A middle-grade retelling of Richard Nixon's downfall, Bringing Down A President: The Watergate Scandal is an inventive and timely look at one of the biggest scandals to ever rock our nation by Andrea Balis and Elizabeth Levy, featuring graphic novel style illustrations by Tim Foley.
Comprised almost completely of primary source quotes (good thing Nixon's recorder was on) and interspersed with contextual narrative, this captivating account of the trials and tribulations of the Nixon Administration has been rendered screenplay style offering an extraordinarily immediate narrative of one of America's most turbulent eras.
Author Notes
Elizabeth Levy was born and grew up in Buffalo, New York. She attended Brown University, majoring in history. After graduation, Levy went to New York City and worked as a researcher for Howard Cosell at ABC-TV and then for Senator Robert Kennedy. She has been writing for nearly thirty years and has written over 80 books.
Levy has won the Georgia State Award, the Maryland State Award and was a Virginia State Award Nominee in 2001 for My Life as a Fifth Grade Comedian, she was on the ABA Pick of the Lists in 2000 for Seventh Grade Tango. Levy also appeared in the New York Public Library 100 Best Books of 1997, was an Arkansas State Award, Runner Up in 1992, was Nominated for the Florida Sunshine State Award, the New Mexico, Land of Enchantment Award, and the Nevada Award, for Keep Ms. Sugarman in the Fourth Grade. She earned a New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year in 1977 for Struggle and Lose, Struggle and Win: The United Mineworkers Story and an Outstanding Science book for Children from the National Science Teachers Association, for Before You Were Three in 1977.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7--10--Richard Nixon wrote a single sentence to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on August 9, 1974. It read: "I hereby resign the Office of President of the United States." Nixon became the first president ever to resign from office. What led up to the resignation, including possible impeachment, is the premise of Balis and Levy's book that features well-placed illustrations by Foley. Organized in chronological order that introduces the cast of characters with the heading "The Game Begins," the presentation of the accounts of the Watergate scandal adequately brings the story to life with primary source materials. Yet there is one distracting element: the repetition of "fly on the wall" in the narrative. While Balis and Levy introduce the idiom in their introduction, it is an unnecessary and distracting addition to this straightforward nonfiction that reads like any captivating true crime novel. Idiom aside, breaking down the confusing sequence of events about this presidential cover-up from nearly a half century ago provides an opportunity for historical reflection that may have escaped the consciousness of teen readers. VERDICT The book's unbiased presentation is refreshing. Its focus on the human aspects of Watergate, equally so. Ultimately, Balis and Levy walk readers through the scandal with expertise. A compelling book that deserves to be on the shelf.--Alicia Abdul, Albany High School, NY
Kirkus Review
President Richard Nixon's downfall as a result of the Watergate scandal is vividly recounted in a screenplay-style narrative. In Balis and Levy's narrative, contextual paragraphs identified as "Fly on the Wall" are separated from direct quotes taken from Nixon, his administration, the Watergate burglars, reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, and members of Congress. The purpose of choosing this narrative format is never explained, nor is it readily apparent. Many of Nixon's lines and those of his staff come from transcribed Oval Office recordings. It's inventive all right, but there are some odd inclusions. Is it necessary to know that Howard Hunt urinated in a whiskey bottle while hiding in a closet? What use is it to know what John Dean's wife wore on each day during his weeklong testimony before Congress? Why do the authors need to identify who ate what when Nixon, John Mitchell, and Bob Haldeman met for lunch? Perhaps worse are the exclusions. In recounting Nixon's political career, the authors note he made a name for himself "fighting communists with Senator Joe McCarthy," but there is no explanation of how fraudulent and destructive McCarthy's anti-communist crusade was, nor that it was specifically Nixon's role in the Alger Hiss trial that got him noticed. In lieu of photographs and archival material are Foley's interpretive black-and-white illustrations, which bring a graphic-novel-esque flair to the design.An intriguing but flawed attempt at narrative innovation. (timeline, source notes, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 10-14) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
With Watergate much in the news of late, the coauthors' reconstruction of the national debacle that resulted in the resignation of then President Richard M. Nixon is both timely and relevant. It is also an absolutely riveting story told partly in quotations from documented sources and partly in crisply written expository sections called Fly on the Wall (as in, I wish I had been a fly on the wall ) that augment and expand the quotations. The lively and informative text is enriched by illustrator Foley's many expert black-and-white pictures that capture the spirit of the words and the character of those involved. Particularly revealing are his portraits of the president and the other principal, larger-than-life players in the drama. Though the scandal sparked a constitutional crisis, it had at least one salutary result: it evidenced, as the authors write, that nobody is above the law, not even the president . . . the country is ruled by laws, not by a king. And yet they caution, The cynicism and skepticism of our current political culture has its roots in the years of the Nixon scandals. That said, this valuable book reminds us that we can learn from the lessons of history and so avoid reprising the dark days of this national nightmare.--Michael Cart Copyright 2019 Booklist
Table of Contents
| Cast of Leading Characters | p. ix |
| Introduction | p. xiii |
| Part 1 The Game Begins | |
| To Be a Fly on the Wall | p. 3 |
| The Gang That Couldn't Burgle Straight | p. 6 |
| The Plumbers | p. 16 |
| A Smoking Gun | p. 24 |
| Inside Nixon's Head | p. 27 |
| Struggle at Home and War in Vietnam | p. 35 |
| Part 2 The Cover-Up | |
| Blackmail | p. 45 |
| Under the Bus: Part I | p. 54 |
| Four More Years! | p. 60 |
| The Story That Fades but Doesn't Go Away | p. 65 |
| Enemies, Enemies, Everywhere | p. 75 |
| A Big Win, but Nobody's Happy | p. 80 |
| Part 3 The Great Unraveling | |
| Black Clouds: Without a Silver Lining | p. 87 |
| Fuzzy Eyebrows | p. 93 |
| Naming Names | p. 97 |
| A Cancer on the Presidency | p. 101 |
| Under the Bus: Part II | p. 105 |
| Impeachment on the Horizon | p. 111 |
| Archibald Cox to the Rescue | p. 115 |
| Everybody's Watching | p. 119 |
| Tapes, Tapes, Who's Got the Tapes? | p. 126 |
| The Law versus Richard Nixon | p. 133 |
| Saturday Night Massacre | p. 140 |
| Teetering on the Edge | p. 147 |
| Lull Before the Supreme Storm | p. 155 |
| Dying by Inches | p. 162 |
| Back to California | p. 168 |
| I Gave Them a Sword and They Stuck It In | p. 178 |
| Epilogue | p. 183 |
| Where They Are Now: People Who Went to Jail | p. 187 |
| Where They Are Now: The People Who Put the People in Jail | p. 191 |
| Timeline | p. 193 |
| Note on Sources | p. 197 |
| Source Notes | p. 198 |
| Bibliography | p. 211 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 214 |
| Index | p. 216 |
