Perhaps jumping off the list of Lincoln-Kennedy coincidences that surfaced not long after JFK’s assassination, this entertaining picture book details what the two presidents had in common—but also notes the myriad things they didn’t. Initially, that’s a lot: one had a hardscrabble childhood and grew up to be a Republican; the other was a silver-spoon Democrat. But both fought for their countries, served in the House, lost children, and took up the causes of African Americans. Though the similarities between the men’s personal and political lives become less obvious as the book continues, especially when it tries to link the Civil War with the Cold War, Barretta nonetheless gives children a capsule look at those struggles and other historical events. The assassination of both presidents, of course, ties them together once more. The final pages offer lists of presidential trivia and quotations as well as sources. The text reads easily, but it’s the cartoonish illustrations—big, bold, and set in cleverly designed pages—that will immediately grab kids’ attention. An engaging lead-in to more substantive biographies. — Ilene Cooper