Looking at Lincoln

On April 15, 1865 President Lincoln was declared dead at 7:22 in the morning, having been shot the night before at Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth. It is hard not to be fascinated by the persona of Lincoln, and there are those who even fall in love with him a bit, such as Maira Kalman.

I am a big fan of the art of Maira Kalman. Her style is unmistakable – she is a cartoon artist, painter, writer, and journalist who is at once whimsical, colorful, and witty, and a delight for both the eye and the intellect. She is especially known for her “visual reporting” as well as her iconic covers for the "New Yorker" magazine. She combines realism with fantasy and commentary all in the same pictures, bringing to mind artists as diverse as show more Ludwig Bemelmans and Marc Chagall, and yet she is always identifiable as herself.

Some of her books are labeled as for “children” and some for “adults” but I can’t imagine the former not providing entertainment for the latter. This one, Looking at Lincoln, is no exception.

Looking at Lincoln is narrated by a little girl who is curious about Lincoln and goes to the library to learn more about him. She shares what she learns about his life in the pages that follow. This is no dry recitation of facts, however. She also gives her thoughts and impressions of what she finds out, and shares questions she has about Lincoln that must go unanswered, thus introducing the idea that history is more nuanced and complex than we can know.

This book was an outgrowth of Kalman’s visit to the Rosenbach Library in Philadelphia which sponsored a large exhibition on Lincoln in 2009, and still maintains an online archive of Lincolniana. There, she said, she “fell in love with A. Lincoln.”

Kalman exhibits an extraordinary talent for summarizing the most important aspects of Lincoln's life in just 32 pages, while still focusing on incidents that kids would find interesting. The text is funny, informative, and inspiring. Her illustrations freely mix fantasy and reality in vibrant happy colors that fill the pages.

Near the end of the book, she writes: Abraham Lincoln will live forever. And if you go to Washington, D.C. in the spring you can walk through the cherry blossoms and visit him."

She continues: "At his Memorial you can read the words he wrote near the end of the war. '...With malice toward none, with charity for all.' And you can look into his beautiful eyes. Just look."

The back matter contains notes on sources. In addition, The Gettysburg Address is reprinted on the front and back inside covers.

Evaluation: This is an outstanding resource about Lincoln for both readers of all ages. show less

I admit it. I'm a Maira Kalman fan. When I saw she was coming to the Texas Book Festival last year, I purposefully walked out of another great session early just to ensure an upfront seat at her talk. I was so thrilled to listen to her share bits of her life and her writing with us that I never got around to taking a photo.

So, I'm a Maira Kalman fan, but, even if you don't know her work, try one of her books and I promise that she will captivate you.

Looking at Lincoln is a great Kalman book. Kalman takes a worthy subject, a big subject, and talks and draws around and around it, telling more about the subject when she doesn't tell about it that you can get from most books about the subject. She looks at Lincoln by sharing little things show more about Lincoln that she loves so much that you can't help but loving them, too.

Utterly captivating. show less

Through simplified text and vibrant illustrations, the life of Abraham Lincoln is explored. One day, a girl sees a man who reminds her of Abraham Lincoln and goes to the library to find out more about the 16th president. During her investigation, she finds information about Lincoln’s family life, his education, how he dressed, his presidency, and his death. This text can connect to historical instruction by both focusing on the events during Lincoln's presidency and how the abolition of slavery did not necessarily mean that everyone would be treated equal. Due to it's vibrant colors and simplified history, this book is likely intended for 1st to 3rd graders. Personally, I enjoyed how this book began with a child making a connection to show more her school and personal life because it shows students how the things learned in school are relevant in the real world and/or connect to each other. show less

Looking at Lincoln is an EXCELLENT informational picture book/biography. The book is told through the perspective of a little girl. She is walking in the park one day and sees a very tall man who reminds her of someone. She realizes the man reminds her of Lincoln when she later pays with a five dollar bill. The little girl then goes to the library to find out more about Lincoln and the book takes you through his life, providing facts and information about our sixteenth president. The font switches between a playful one when the girl is speaking to a more traditional one when the author is providing facts.

I have read many children books about Abraham Lincoln. When I taught second grade for three years we did an immense study of his life show more and read a chapter book biography. During the unit, I would often read picture books aloud to the second graders and they loved hearing various versions of his life. The whole time I read this book I thought of my past second grade students and how much they would have loved this version of Lincoln's biography. I wished it would have been published earlier, but since I couldn't go back in time, I settled for reading this book to my Kindergarten boys during our "accomplishments" week. I had previously read A Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln to the boys, so they had a nice foundation of background knowledge on Lincoln and his life. This book exceeded my expectations. It gave information in such an exciting and unique way, and inspired so many class discussions during the book. I loved how the author pointed out Lincoln being on the five dollar bill in a way that the boys could easily relate to, by the little girl paying for her breakfast. I also loved how Kalman showed a little girl interested in finding more out about someone and going to the library to research him. We have been talking extensively in class about how to find out more information about topics we're interested in and the boys were so excited to make that connection. The illustrations are also very enticing and I was able to hold my students' attention for a very long time. The book also provided some information that most of the picture books I’ve read on Lincoln do not. I highly recommend this book and enjoyed it very much. show less

This charming book written in first person dialogue, and presented in journaled paintings is a charming way to introduce elementary students to an exploration of a famous figure. The author presents the story of her inspiration to discover Lincoln as she walks through a modern city park and sees a man in a tall hat. She queries "what famous person has a hat like that?" and she realizes that it is Abraham Lincoln. She leaves the park to have a pancake breakfast which she illustrates and notices that Abraham Lincoln is on her five dollar bill that she uses to pay for her breakfast. This inspires a journey of discovery to the library first to find books on this person who she describes as an " Amazing Man" and President. She journals and show more paints bold paintings of each part of her research discovery at the public library. Her first discovery is that there are over 16,000 books written about Abraham Lincoln. She finds a book and begins her journal on Lincoln. The style is very simple and denotes al the important information one would discover in researching a famous person who inspires over 16,000 books about them. Her first discovery begins " He was born in a small log cabin in Kentucky on February 12, 1809. Th family was poor. "Abe" was a dreamer. He did not like to do chores. He loved to read. She goes on to discover " One day he was kicked in the head by a mule. He slept for two days. Then he woke up and grew up and decided to be a lawyer. As Maira Kalman learns about the basic facts of Abraham Lincoln she makes inner monologue questions that inspire the reader to ask their own personal questions about Lincoln . For example " I wonder if Mary and Abraham had nicknames for each other. Did she call him Linky? Did he call her little plumpy? Maybe." This allows for a reading of the book by a teacher to ask the students to ask their own questions and give hints on how to research each of these questions.
Each time the author notates something well known about the famous Abraham Lincoln she includes an interesting fact and gives an opportunity for whole class discussion. For example, "Lincoln wore a very tall hat ( with his hat on he was seven feet tall) He wrote many notes and stuffed them inside his hat. She muses " What was he thinking about". In using this book in an elementary classroom I would use the author's questions as question for a group discussion. She discovers he was thinking about freedom and democracy and The Constitution. She goes through the things that he loved as a boy, his dog Fido Mozart and apples. She then brings in the people that thought like Lincoln for example, Frederick Douglas and Sojourner Truth. Then she relates the importance he has in history. "Lincoln hated slavery and wrote to a friend, If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong" . She then describes the civil war through Lincoln's point of view, " It was a difficult time to be President" she describes the Gettysburg address. She spends another five pages on the Historically important Civil War and his assassination . She ends the book at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. She notes the words of Lincoln "...with malice toward none, with charity for all." After an open reading and open class discussion on this book I would then have my students learn about the amazing Lincoln Memorial Using this book as an introduction to this monument. show less

A short and poignant picture book dedicated to the history of Abraham Lincoln with quirky details of his life and times. The book takes on the perspective of a young girl and each page is presented as if a young 8-9 year wrote it and put it together which I found to be fun and interesting to present to young children. It was a great introductory book to a social studies block on the Emancipation Proclamation or just a block on Honest Abe himself. I loved how on some pages it spoke of the food he liked, or the books he loved and throughout, the child's guess on what he might have liked as well or what he was thinking when he put on that tall hat.

This book was very interesting because of how it was written. One page is written in a perspective of a child on a tour and the other page gives facts about Lincoln. I would use this to show students facts about Lincoln, but also to show an interesting biography.