Abraham Lincoln

By: Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire
Biography
~This book is all about Abraham Lincoln, how he grew up and eventally became president. I think it does a great job of folowing Abe Lincolnes life starting when he was first born on his parents Kentucky farm in 1809. Abe, his mom, dad and sister sally lived on this farm untill they moved to Little Pigeon Creek Indiana when Abe was 7. The book talks of all the hardships Abe's family had to go through and how they lived off the land. When Abe was 9 his mother passed away. His dad re married not long after, and she brought with her 3 more children. Abe's new stepmother pushed him in his school work and encouraged his reading and writing. Then, when Abe was 21, he helped his family move to New Salem Illonios, then decided to start a life of his own there. He worked in a store where he got a long great with the town folk. Everyone started calling him "honest Abe" becuase he was always so true to his word. The town folk thought abe should be elected to go to the capitol, so Abe went around telling speaches and before he knew it he was on his way. Abe decided after this that he wanted to become a lawyer, but he had no way of doing so. Then one day someone dropped a barrel of junk off at his store, where he found a book of Law at the bottom. Abe began studying this book and taught himslelf. Soon after, he set off for Springfield, the capitol of Illonois. When he got to Springfield he stopped in a store and met a wealthy man by the name of Joshua Speed. Joshua beleived in Abe and made him a great lawayer. After this, Abe married a witty young woman names Mary Todd, and they had three young boys. Abraham had never been much of a politician. But many years later Abe went to congress, where all the politicians were arguing whether or not to abolish slavery. Abe thought slavery was cruel and wrong. He believed that " all men are created equal" and faught to end slavery. All of the northern states wanted to elect abe as president, and sure enough they did just that. abe wanted to re-unite the North and the South, so with a heacy heart, he sent northern soldiers to fight the South, to begin the Civil War. Abe gave one of his most famous speeches, The Gettysburg Address to the norther soldiers. Abe tried to make friends with the south,even tried to buy the slaves freedom, but they wouldnt budge. Abe ended up signing the Emancipation Proclamation to free all slaves. Abe was a great president and worked hard to bring the United States back togetehr.

~This book would be great to use during a study of Abraham Lincoln and his life. This book is filled with great facts about Abe's life, but remains child friendly. You could have students go through the book and write down three interesting facts that they did not know about Abraham Lincoln, then have students think, pair, share and share what they learned with a partner. You could also have students do a crossword puzzle, to help them organize the facrs from the book.