Abraham Lincoln: The Great Emancipator

My son chose this book for a school book report. The kids have enjoyed learning about the childhood of famous people, how their childhoods shaped who they became. It was great to read and fun for all of us (DS 10, DS8). The chapters took us about 15min to read. We've also read a couple other books in this series. I've enjoyed them as much as the children.

This is not a biography, per se. The "Childhood of Famous Americans" books are a series of fictionalized accounts of the youth of famous Americans. The conversations and scenarios are made up, to show the character formation of the famous person. The places and names of people seem biographical; the situations are probably not. Having said that... we like this series very well. The Abraham Lincoln book conveys the values and choices that children would do well to adopt. But it is subtle -- the chapters are entertaining and engaging. The few illustrations are very clear and good. My kids are 6 and 3 -- I read the story out loud to them. They listened and enjoyed the book. They asked a lot of questions, about early settlers and problems with Indians, and how did Lincoln's mother and sister die? We used the opportunity to look up the answers to their questions together (Mother - poisoned milk; sister - childbirth) I recommend this for early elementary and up -- it is a great read as a family and a good chapter book for growing readers. I especially like the Lincoln book because adventure books and moral books for boys are VERY hard to find, and this met my standards.

Abraham Lincoln the Great Emancipator is a book written by Augusta Stevenson. It is 192 page biography. Abe lived in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. This story begins when Abe was a little boy, in Kentucky. He learned the ways of the forest, walking without making noise, learned to cover tracks and follow them, learned to hide, learned to crawl through grass without making it move. He learned the sounds of the forest and animals. His family moved to Indiana, this is when Abe was homeschooled, he was 10 years old at the time. Abe loved to read, write and to learn from books and people. He would walk for miles to borrow a book, and walk miles to return it. Abraham Lincoln was called "honest Abe" because of his integrity. He was also a very hard worker, always polite, funny, a good story teller and cared for others. No wonder he made a good president of the United States.

My mom was always encouraging me to read biograhies. One day, my mom sat me on a chair and forced me to read at least one chapter. I didn't think I would like it, but I loved it! Tons of info on Abe Lincoln! Some conversations were added to make it more interesting, but most of it was true. I am reading tons of bios from the same series (the Childhood of Famous Americans series). I would encouage everyone to read this book and other books of the series!