Lincoln: A Photobiography by: Russell Freedman

Genre: Non-Fiction/Biography

Publisher: Clarion

Copyright Date: 1987

Number of Pages: 160

Reading Level: 9-12

Summary:

This is the book about Abraham Lincoln's life. He was 6'4" inches tall (mostly legs), he was homely, gawky, and he wore a high silk hat. He was born in Kentucky in a log cabin with a dirt floor. He never liked to talk about his growing up much. But, he had very little schooling. His parents couldn't read or write. However, he was a bookworm. He read all the time. Anytime he could get his hands on a book, he would read it. They moved around quite a bit. His mother died and his father remarried. His first job was working as a ferryman's helper on the Ohio River. He went back and lived with his family for a while but eventually started working in a General Store. He would read, and wrestle, and tell jokes, and laugh... He started thinking about politics at 23 when he ran for state legislature. He was a confident public speaker so it was worth a try. He lost this time. After that he became a frontier merchant. He tried all sorts of small jobs. Eventually he ran for state legislature again and placed second this time out of 13. He was elected to the house of Representatives. At that point, he started to study law. He was good at it and he was becoming recognized. The next years of his life were filled with him practicing his law degree, getting married, and he was elected into the House of Representatives. That didn't go well and so he went back to practicing law. At this point slavery was becoming an issue with the expansion of the U.S. Lincoln, for a while, didn't take a firm stand on slavery, but her did think it was immoral. As time went on, he got back into the political race and he ran for president. It was a long campaign against the Democrat Stephen Douglas. He was elected. (at this point he started growing his beard) The election of President Lincoln caused an uproar because it was widley known that Lincoln opposed slavery. One thing led to another and before the country knew it, it was in a civil war. North against the south. The war was a continuous string of bad Union Generals. Enormous amounts of bloodshed and losses of life. Lincoln was the most unpopular president. The war was literally in people's backyards. Brother Against brother. It was gruesome. During the course of the war, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Slaves in the Rebel states were forever free, and they could enlist in the Union army. The war went on for many years longer than expected. People kept dying... Niether side was giving up, cities were destroyed, homes, and families were destroyed. It looked like the end of the nation. Finally however, in 1965, the war was finally over. It was almost exactly four years in length. Neither side expected it to be that long, nor to end slavery. But it did. The thirteenth Amendment was signed and all slaves were free.

Shortly after the war ended, Lincoln was reelected for another term. He and his wife went to the Ford's Theatre with another couple. The play started and his body gaurd slipped downstairs to watch it. With out him on gaurd John Wilkes Booth snuck in and shot the president. He lived for another day or two, but died on April 15th at the age of 56. His body went on a train for a funeral procession where people along the tracks lit fires in memorial to him. The stuff that was in his pocket at the time of his death was put in a bag and not opened for nearly 40 years after.

While Abraham Lincoln did amazing things for this country, he wasn't perfect. He fought with his wife, he wore carpet slippers, he let his children reak havoc on the white house, he went through bouts of depression... But all that just means he was a normal human being who did extraordinary things.

Who would benefit from reading this book/ who would I recommend this book to?

This is a book for older kids. It would be way too difficult for a child younder than prpbably 10 to understand and to be interested in. But I would recommend this to any age appropriate student because it is important for the children of America to get to know the American heroes.

What problems/conflicts could this book potentially cause?

Like I said, it is a little more difficult to read so it should be targeted at an older audience. There is bloodshed in it that is portrayed accurately but still is there. He wasn't a perfect man.

My Reaction:

I loved getting to know this American president in such an honest way. What an amazing story that he has. I am so intrigued by the life that he lived because as I said, he wasn't perfect, but that made him all the more human and relatable. By reading about him in this way, I realize how little I knew about him in the first place and I realized how fantasized people portray him as. The pictures in this book are simply amazing and they make the book even better.