Sheinkin is an award-winning author of nonfiction for young readers. He specializes in American history and has written over a dozen books on such diverse figures as Benedict Arnold, Amelia Earhart, Jim Thorpe, and Daniel Ellsberg. Formerly a writer of textbooks, Sheinkin has garnered praise for making history more accessible to young readers with his suspenseful books, which he began writing in 2008. Several of his books have been National Book Award finalists, and his 2012 book, Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon, was awarded both the Newbery Honor and the Sibert Medal from the American Library Association. Branching out into historical fiction, Sheinkin has written and illustrated three graphic novels set in the Old West, which are about a fictional Colorado sheriff who is also a Jewish rabbi.

Abraham Lincoln was the president of the United States from 1861 to 1865. He helmed the nation through the most devastating chapter of its history, the American Civil War, and he also held the Union together. Several American cities were afterward named for him. Today, he is considered to be the most beloved of American presidents.

Lincoln was assassinated on April 15, 1865, by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer.