Review by Booklist Review
K^-Gr. 2. Using simple language, bare-bones details, and uncluttered illustrations, Winters introduces America's sixteenth president. She recounts events from Lincoln's childhood in Kentucky and Indiana and his young adulthood in New Salem, Illinois. The engaging narrative emphasizes Lincoln's love of books and reading, which flourished despite his lack of formal education. Carpenter's oil-on-canvas illustrations include many details of pioneer life and focus on Lincoln's humble beginnings. An author's note filling in some information omitted from the story is appended. This will be a good choice for reading aloud, although many children will want to follow up with a more complete biography, such as Cheryl Harness' Young Abe Lincoln: The Frontier Days: 1809^-1837 (1996) or Abe Lincoln Goes to Washington: 1837^-1865 (1997). Kay Weisman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Carpenter's (Fannie in the Kitchen) expressive oil paintings lend an appropriately sturdy air to this picture book biography of the 16th president. Winters (Wolf Watch) traces Lincoln's path "from the wilderness to the White House," beginning in the one-room cabin where he first spoke and progressing to his later career as a self-taught lawyer and politician who "aimed his words at wrongs he'd like to right." With an eye for details of particular interest to a young audience (such as the fact that as a boy, Lincoln plowed with a book in his back pocket for reading during frequent breaks), the author highlights the main points of Lincoln's life. Her free-verse narrative takes on a suitably homespun directness ("His ideas stretched./ His questions rose./ His dreams stirred," she writes as young Abe watches people pass by on the Cumberland Trail), a quality echoed in Carpenter's choice of oils on rough-textured canvas, in a style reminiscent of Grandma Moses's work. Frontier life unfolds in warm earth-toned shades, and the artist sets a brisk pace by interspersing smaller vignettes with full-bleed vistas. The pages bustle with spry figures, including Lincoln himself, a wiry lad with a shock of unruly hair, big ears and highwater pants. An author's note fleshes out more of the important events of Lincoln's life. This fine introduction to a president over whom, from boyhood, "letters cast a magic spell" points up a valuable message-that of the importance of words in shaping ideas and lives. Ages 5-8. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-An introduction to Lincoln's childhood that concentrates on his education. Throughout the book, there are references to his thoughts and feelings-"His ideas stretched. His questions rose. His dreams were stirred." The prose is formatted like poetry, the print is small, and the sentences are short. The oil paintings on canvas have a folk-art quality, with young Lincoln shown as lanky and dark haired. Some pictures are humorous, as when the classroom teacher snores on while Abe displays his knowledge of subtraction. A spread depicts the family's hardscrabble move to Little Pigeon Creek, where "no cabin waited" and they lived for a time in a "half-faced camp" that was exposed to the elements on one side. Another spread depicts a wintry graveside scene and describes the grief Lincoln felt when his mother died. The legend of his honesty-walking miles to return change-is summed up. Lincoln's political career is touched on briefly, while his wife, children, and assassination are mentioned only in an author's note. Stephen Krensky's Abe Lincoln and the Muddy Pig (Aladdin, 2002) also concentrates on Lincoln's childhood and is more accessible to beginning readers. Because of the popularity of the subject, libraries already owning that work might also want to consider this title, which is a solid classroom read-aloud.-Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
This picture book biography emphasizes young Abe's love of learning, which made him ill suited to the rough physical lifestyle of the frontier. Although the text is laid out like free-verse poetry, it reads like prose, and the lively oil paintings, which glow with outdoorsy shades of yellow and orange, add humor. An author's note offers additional facts about Lincoln's adulthood and presidency. Bib. From HORN BOOK Fall 2003, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
In a moving tribute to the power of books and words, Winters (But Mom, Everyone Else Does, p. 1239, etc.) introduces a young backwoods child who watched "peddlers, pioneers, / politicians, traders, slaves / pass by," down the old Cumberland Trail, until "his ideas stretched. / His questions rose. / His dreams were stirred"--and he was caught with a love of learning that carried him "from the wilderness / to the White House." In a mix of vignettes and larger scenes, Carpenter (A Far-Fetched Story, 2002, etc.) plants her lanky lad, generally with book in hand, amid a variety of rustic and early American scenes as he passes from infant to president. Using strong, economical language, Winter recounts selected incidents from Lincoln's life that point up several aspects of his character, sums up her thesis at the end ("He learned the power of words / and used them well"), then closes with a supplemental afterword that does not, unlike Amy Cohn's Abraham Lincoln (2002), misrepresent the Emancipation Proclamation. For bookish young readers in search of a role model, here's the best one since Jean Fritz introduced St. Columba in The Man Who Loved Books (1981). (Picture book/biography. 7-9)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
