True Story

I have confessed to being a history nerd so you're probably assuming that I am a big fan of non-fiction-especially when it's about history.  Well.....that's not entirely correct.  I like reading dairies or
journals from people in history and I love reading stories from history (historical fiction OR non-fiction).  But a classic historical
text isn't always my favorite thing to read.

So I must now confess Russell Freedman's Lincoln: A Photobiography was hard for me to get through.  I loved all of the prints and engravings from the time period.  He was right to title this a "photobiography," there are pictures (whether they be prints, engravings or newspapers) at least every other page.  However, the style of writing, to me, seemed to drag on.

But this book won the Newbery, people who care a lot about reading deemed this book worthy of an award.  So I asked myself, "why didn't I care for this book?"  I think it came down to this-I already knew the story.  Lincoln is one of our most celebrated presidents, he gets a lot of coverage in pretty much every US history class.  I grew up just outside of D.C., I visited the Dr. Mudd house (where Dr. Mudd set the leg of John Wilkes Booth), I have seen the theatre where Lincoln was shot, I have visited Gettysburg and taken the tour multiple times.  So because of all of this, there wasn't a whole lot I learned from this book.  Without all of this prior knowledge I think I would have enjoyed this book infinitely more.  I would definitely suggest it for a middle school history class where students are just beginning to learn about Lincoln.

One special treat that this book contains is the last chapter titled, "A Lincoln Sampler."  I am a great lover of quotes, and the Lincoln sampler is exactly that-a sampling of quotations.  This included not  just his most notable speeches and famous lines, but also some quips-giving a depth to the president that we don't always get.  This sampler portrays Lincoln not just as a great president who saved the Union and freed the slaves, but as an actual human being.  This is my favorite quote: "Common-looking people are the best in the world; that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them."  

Seeing someone as a real person....that's kids stuff.