Gr 3-6
Written in prose as elegant and spare as that of its subject, this distinguished book takes readers from Abe's backwoods boyhood in Kentucky to his first harrowing witnessing of slavery in New Orleans, on to the Illinois legislature and the presidency. Each half-page of generously spaced text appears against a white background. Rappaport's carefully chosen words are both accessible and effective: "The war dragged on./Lincoln grew sadder and sadder/as more men died." Until, "The South finally surrendered./The job of healing the nation began./But Lincoln was not there to help./An assassin's bullet ended his life." Corresponding quotes from Lincoln appear in italics, e.g., "The moment came when I felt that slavery must die that the nation might live!" Handsome, larger-than-life paintings fill the remaining page and a half of each spread with powerful images-of Abe as a strong, lanky youth with a book or oar in hand, then later as a lawyer with unkempt hair, feather pen, and midnight candles burning. Readers see the somber, resigned faces of slaves-young and old-first in chains, then picking cotton under a blazing sun, and later the proud faces of an all-black regiment of the Union Army. From Lincoln's striking countenance on the cover-scruffy dark hair tinged with gray, big ears, bright eyes, and benevolent face, lined with worry and age-to the end, this is one Lincoln book that all libraries will want to have.-Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public Schools
