Like the faces on Mount Rushmore, this entry in the series provides a face but falls short on substance
Following Theodore (2006) and George (2012), Keating adds a new face to the Mount Rushmore series.
In a first-person narrative that incorporates many quotations of his own words, the 16th president looks back on his life and accomplishments and presents himself glowingly in the process. He’s Honest Abe, liberator of slaves, savior of the union, protector of the Constitution. There’s no room here for or even a hint at complex issues and moral decisions; the icon is paramount. Wimmer’s oil-on-canvas paintings are the star, with stately full-page images complementing the text, though they too elide complexity. A slave-auction image feels rather like an exercise in illustrating period dress (fashionable white men and auctioneer), with only a dangling shackle to indicate the enslaved human foregrounded but placed discreetly to the side, back to readers. The dramatic Civil War image is reminiscent of Mort Kunstler’s famous war scenes in drama and palette. The narrative and the many quotations are an uneasy mix, the sometimes-stately tone of speech excerpts jarring with Keating’s straightforward narrative voice, and quotations sometimes overwhelm the text. Backmatter includes the text of “The Gettysburg Address” and a brief bibliography of scholarly works but no guide to the many fine works on the subject for young readers.
Like the faces on Mount Rushmore, this entry in the series provides a face but falls short on substance . (Picture book/biography. 6-9)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4424-9319-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
A succinct, edifying read, but don’t buy it for the pictures.
Abraham Lincoln’s ascent to the presidency is recounted in a fluid, easy-to-read biography for early readers.
Simple, direct sentences stress Lincoln’s humble upbringing, his honesty, and his devotion to acting with moral conviction. “Lincoln didn’t seem like a man who would be president one day. But he studied hard and became a lawyer. He cared about people and about justice.” Slavery and Lincoln’s signature achievement of emancipation are explained in broad yet defined, understandable analogies. “At that time, in the South, the law let white people own black people, just as they owned a house or a horse.” Readers are clearly given the president’s perspective through some documented memorable quotes from his own letters. “Lincoln did not like slavery. ‘If slavery is not wrong,’ he wrote to a friend ‘nothing is wrong.’ ” (The text does not clarify that this letter was written in 1865 and not before he ascended to the presidency, as implied by the book.) As the war goes on and Lincoln makes his decision to free the slaves in the “Southern states”—“a bold move”—Lincoln’s own words describe his thinking: “ ‘If my name ever goes into history,’ Lincoln said, ‘it will be for this act.’ ” A very basic timeline, which mentions the assassination unaddressed in the text, is followed by backmatter providing photographs, slightly more detailed historical information, and legacy. It’s a pity that the text is accompanied by unremarkable, rudimentary opaque paintings.
A succinct, edifying read, but don’t buy it for the pictures. (Informational early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-243256-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
The legions of fans who over the years have enjoyed dePaola’s autobiographical picture books will welcome this longer gathering of reminiscences. Writing in an authentically childlike voice, he describes watching the new house his father was building go up despite a succession of disasters, from a brush fire to the hurricane of 1938. Meanwhile, he also introduces family, friends, and neighbors, adds Nana Fall River to his already well-known Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs, remembers his first day of school (“ ‘ When do we learn to read?’ I asked. ‘Oh, we don’t learn how to read in kindergarten. We learn to read next year, in first grade.’ ‘Fine,’ I said. ‘I’ll be back next year.’ And I walked right out of school.”), recalls holidays, and explains his indignation when the plot of Disney’s “Snow White” doesn’t match the story he knows. Generously illustrated with vignettes and larger scenes, this cheery, well-knit narrative proves that an old dog can learn new tricks, and learn them surpassingly well. (Autobiography. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-399-23246-X
Page Count: 58
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1999
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