Richie's Picks: Great Books for Children and Young Adults

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"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that 'all men are created equal.'" -- Lincoln, from the Gettysburg Address

"One February afternoon in 1817, while Abraham's father was away, a flock of turkeys strutted into a clearing outside his cabin. Inside, Abraham grabbed his father's rifle, 'shot through a crack and killed one of them.' Proud of his marksmanship, he raced to collect his prize...then stopped short. The turkey, he saw, was beautiful! Guilt washed over him. How could he have killed something so majestic? 'My early start as a hunter,' he later recalled, 'was never much improved afterward.' In fact, he never again 'pulled a trigger on any larger game.'"

Early in the morning, one hundred and forty-three years ago today (April 15), Abraham Lincoln, having been shot the previous evening by John Wilkes Booth in Ford's Theater, died across the street from the theater in Petersen's Boarding House. Mary Lincoln, his wife of thirty-two years, never really recovered from that night.

Mary, in contrast to Abraham's oft-told humble beginnings, was brought up with "piano lessons, Persian rugs, and slaves to wait on her." Mary was an unusual young woman for her time because she was exceptionally well-educated:

"After reading Wollstonecraft's book [A Vindication of the Rights of Woman], Mary's father was convinced Mary should receive 'a substantial rather than ornamental education.' While his other daughters were also given formal educations, it was Mary -- with her sharp mind -- who studied mathematics and philosophy. Of course, Mr.Todd didn't expect his daughter to use this education; she wasn't going to take up a profession. He believed its purpose was to attract a better husband."

And who did she attract?

"Tall and gawky, wearing a swallowtail coat that was too short, shabbily patched trousers, and mismatched socks, Abraham made his way to Mary's side. 'Miss Todd,' he said, 'I want to dance with you in the worst way.' And, as Mary remembered it, 'he certainly did.'"

As with Candace Fleming’s previous scrapbook-style biographies on Ben Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, THE LINCOLNS is a must-have for anyone serving ten- through fourteen-year-olds. What more could one hope for from a biography than accuracy, readability, excellent timelines and source notes, rarely-if-ever-seen images, and relevance to the Twenty-first Century lives of readers?

But unlike the Ben Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt stories, which feel so triumphant because their subjects succeed in living long, satisfying, and productive lives, THE LINCOLNS is a true story that seems to begin with great potential and hope and eventually becomes an incredibly tragic tale: Hundreds of thousands die in the War Between the States. Abraham and Mary repeatedly lose their children at terribly young ages. Abraham is assassinated. Mary is swallowed up in embarrassing financial affairs, and her remaining and bitter son temporarily succeeds in paying off people to have her adjudicated as being insane.

(I shudder to imagine what it would have been like if the public had heaped the sort of scorn on Jackie Kennedy or Lady Bird Johnson or Nancy Reagan in their declining years that was frequently shown the widowed Mary in hers.)

But what also makes THE LINCOLNS such a thoroughly intriguing and sometimes amusing read for me (the news junkie) in 2008 are the host of parallels one can find between the perceptions that presidential candidates seek to achieve today and the many images of Abraham Lincoln that Fleming provides:

"Abraham was scrupulously honest when it came to money -- especially money collected on behalf of his campaigns. After winning his seat in Congress in 1847, he returned $199.25 of the $200 received from his supporters. He gave this explanation:
"I made the canvass on my own horse; my entertainment, being at the house of friends, cost me nothing; and my only outlay was 75 cents for a barrel of cider, which some farmhands insisted I should treat to."

"While [Stephen] Douglas traveled to the debate sites in a private railroad car, accompanied by his personal valet, an entourage of reporters, and his beautiful wife, who was once labeled the 'Belle of Washington' by the Chicago Tribune, Lincoln came by ox-drawn cart, stagecoach, or, most often, train, where he always rode in a regular passenger car. Even though he was the most successful and prominent attorney in the state, Lincoln wanted the voters to see him as a common man with simple tastes."

"And the night comes again to the circle studded sky
The stars settle slowly, in loneliness they lie
'Till the universe explodes as a falling star is raised
Planets are paralyzed, mountains are amazed
But they all grow brighter from the brilliance of the blaze
With the speed of insanity, then he dies."
-- Phil Ochs, "Crucifixion"

After reading THE LINCOLNS, one cannot possibly expect that the United States of America would be existing in its current form if there had not been an Abraham Lincoln filled with a steadfast determination to hold it together -- refusing to permit either secession or continued spread of slavery -- no matter what the cost. And it is difficult to fathom the possibility of there having been a President Lincoln had there not been a Mary Lincoln by his side.

In THE LINCOLNS, as she has so successfully done before, Candace Fleming takes what would seem to be one of most common of biographic subjects in American history and crafts a book that is absolutely new, unique, and entertaining.

Richie Partington, MLIS
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