A little log cabin in Hodgenville, Kentucky on February 12, 1809 was the birthplace of a future American president. Abraham Lincoln’s humble beginnings wouldn’t stop him, for he was a boy destined for greatness. His mother, Nancy, was illiterate, but she “knew parts of the Bible by heart” and would recite them to Abraham and his sister, Sarah. For a time, Abraham and Sarah went to school. It was a very noisy, busy learning experience because “the student’s would shout out their ABCs and 123s” as they worked. Education was very important to Abraham, both as a child and later as an adult, but his father, Thomas, needed help on the farm so he couldn’t always attend school. Not to worry, the importance of getting an education was instilled in that young boy.
At the age of eight, the family moved to yet another log cabin, but this one was in Indiana. The frontier land was rough and the “woods were full of wolves, bears, and other wild animals.” It was there that Abraham and Sarah lost their mother, but gained another special one a year later. Sarah Bush Johnston, their new stepmother, brought three more children with her along with some books. Abraham worked hard in the fields and continued to read. He even “walked almost twenty miles to borrow a single book.” Imagine that! Yes, books were very important to young Abraham as were animals. Did you ever hear the story about how he rescued a groundhog? If not, you will in this book.
Work, work, reading, reading, and then another move to “a new cabin in Illinois.” Abraham was now a man, a man who “tried many kinds of work,” including digging wells. His love of reading did him well because it was in the pages of a book he learned about the law. By the age of twenty-eight, Abraham was a lawyer ready to launch his career. He married Mary Todd in 1842 and started his family. Barely ten years later, that young family man, the lawyer, “was elected to the United States Congress in Washington D.C.” Abraham saw things he didn’t like, but later he would be in a position to do something about it. Slavery. In his mind it was an abomination, but what could he do about it? Abraham lost in a run for the United States Senate, but when he was “fifty-one, he was elected President,” a position that just might help him abolish slavery!
No doubt about it, Demi has always been one of my favorite illustrators of children’s books. Her illustrations always capture my imagination and, of course, the essence of the tale at hand. In “President Lincoln: From Log Cabin to White House,” she uncovers some vignettes that young students might not be aware of. Many are familiar with Lincoln’s basic bio, but probably don’t know little vignettes about his personal life, the groundhog story being one of them. Books such as this one often can be stepping stones toward more research about Lincoln and other events mentioned in passing. In the back of the book is a map of the U.S. in 1861 outlining Union Territories, Union and Confederate states, a photograph of Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address, a timeline (1806 to 1922, some fascinating facts, and a two-page spread of quotations.
This book courtesy of the publisher.
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2016
