At my local library, this book was not shelved with the biographies. Hmm - I wonder why?I grew up in Illinois and my grandmother collected all things Lincoln. I have visited the Lincoln museum in Springfield and I have toured New Salem so I came to this book with a solid background. Nevertheless, i found the presentation of his life unique and interesting. It is known that Lincoln suffered from depression and I agree that his number one coping tool was probably a sense of humor. Everyone knows that Lincoln loved to read and has heard the tales of him walking miles to borrow books. What I hadn't considered was that all this reading gave him a command of language. This in turn created his propensity to "tell stories". By poking fun at himself and by developing a clever wit, Lincoln easily made friends and developed leadership skills to influence others.I learned that Lincoln kept a scrapbook of favorite words (now wouldn't that be a great ongoing classroom project!)Finally, since I too love words, my favorite part of this book was the inclusion of many Lincoln quotes. They are either clever enough to hang on the refrigerator for a daily chuckle, or they are profound enough to frame and continue to encourage others with his wisdom. I got this book w/ great hope and enthusiasm. What a let down. I felt like I was reading a book written for grade school children. And maybe I was. Perhaps I missed that. I should have suspected something when I saw that the book was less than 200 pages long and at least half of them were pictures.It's not that it was a bad book. I just didn't expect to finish it in less than an hour and basically learn only that "laughter is the best medicine".
Love. "Lincoln saw that the power of words could put someone in jail or free them. Words mattered."
—nellywelly
Wonderful, this would be a great classroom read aloud.
—tyker504
Really a wonderful book about Abraham Lincoln!!!
—candelia
Lincoln actually told a lot of jokes. J.M.
—frnkerr
