ALA Booklist (Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 CST 2003)

Using simple language, bare-bones details, and uncluttered illustrations, Winters introduces America's sixteenth president. She recounts events from Lincoln's childhood in Kentucky and Indiana and his young adulthood in New Salem, Illinois. The engaging narrative emphasizes Lincoln's love of books and reading, which flourished despite his lack of formal education. Carpenter's oil-on-canvas illustrations include many details of pioneer life and focus on Lincoln's humble beginnings. An author's note filling in some information omitted from the story is appended. This will be a good choice for reading aloud, although many children will want to follow up with a more complete biography, such as Cheryl Harness' Young Abe Lincoln: The Frontier Days: 1809-1837 (1996) or Abe Lincoln Goes to Washington: 1837-1865 (1997).

Horn Book (Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 2005)

"Somebody / loves you / deep and true. / If I weren't / so bashful / I'd tell you / who." Hopkins gathers Valentine's Day poems by children's poets Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Heidi Bee Roemer, and others. Since these are easy-reader poems, they tend toward the roses-are-red variety, but they are all sweet and sometimes even funny. Adinolfi's art features lovestruck kids of different ethnicities.

Kirkus Reviews

In a moving tribute to the power of books and words, Winters ( But Mom, Everyone Else Does , p. 1239, etc.) introduces a young backwoods child who watched "peddlers, pioneers, / politicians, traders, slaves / pass by," down the old Cumberland Trail, until "his ideas stretched. / His questions rose. / His dreams were stirred"—and he was caught with a love of learning that carried him "from the wilderness / to the White House." In a mix of vignettes and larger scenes, Carpenter ( A Far-Fetched Story , 2002, etc.) plants her lanky lad, generally with book in hand, amid a variety of rustic and early American scenes as he passes from infant to president. Using strong, economical language, Winter recounts selected incidents from Lincoln's life that point up several aspects of his character, sums up her thesis at the end ("He learned the power of words / and used them well"), then closes with a supplemental afterword that does not, unlike Amy Cohn's Abraham Lincoln (2002), misrepresent the Emancipation Proclamation. For bookish young readers in search of a role model, here's the best one since Jean Fritz introduced St. Columba in The Man Who Loved Books (1981). (Picture book/biography. 7-9)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Carpenter's (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Fannie in the Kitchen) expressive oil paintings lend an appropriately sturdy air to this picture book biography of the 16th president. Winters (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Wolf Watch) traces Lincoln's path "from the wilderness to the White House," beginning in the one-room cabin where he first spoke and progressing to his later career as a self-taught lawyer and politician who "aimed his words at wrongs he'd like to right." With an eye for details of particular interest to a young audience (such as the fact that as a boy, Lincoln plowed with a book in his back pocket for reading during frequent breaks), the author highlights the main points of Lincoln's life. Her free-verse narrative takes on a suitably homespun directness ("His ideas stretched./ His questions rose./ His dreams stirred," she writes as young Abe watches people pass by on the Cumberland Trail), a quality echoed in Carpenter's choice of oils on rough-textured canvas, in a style reminiscent of Grandma Moses's work. Frontier life unfolds in warm earth-toned shades, and the artist sets a brisk pace by interspersing smaller vignettes with full-bleed vistas. The pages bustle with spry figures, including Lincoln himself, a wiry lad with a shock of unruly hair, big ears and highwater pants. An author's note fleshes out more of the important events of Lincoln's life. This fine introduction to a president over whom, from boyhood, "letters cast a magic spell" points up a valuable message—that of the importance of words in shaping ideas and lives. Ages 5-8. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Jan.)

School Library Journal (Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 CST 2003)

K-Gr 2 An introduction to Lincoln's childhood that concentrates on his education. Throughout the book, there are references to his thoughts and feelings"His ideas stretched. His questions rose. His dreams were stirred." The prose is formatted like poetry, the print is small, and the sentences are short. The oil paintings on canvas have a folk-art quality, with young Lincoln shown as lanky and dark haired. Some pictures are humorous, as when the classroom teacher snores on while Abe displays his knowledge of subtraction. A spread depicts the family's hardscrabble move to Little Pigeon Creek, where "no cabin waited" and they lived for a time in a "half-faced camp" that was exposed to the elements on one side. Another spread depicts a wintry graveside scene and describes the grief Lincoln felt when his mother died. The legend of his honestywalking miles to return changeis summed up. Lincoln's political career is touched on briefly, while his wife, children, and assassination are mentioned only in an author's note. Stephen Krensky's Abe Lincoln and the Muddy Pig (Aladdin, 2002) also concentrates on Lincoln's childhood and is more accessible to beginning readers. Because of the popularity of the subject, libraries already owning that work might also want to consider this title, which is a solid classroom read-aloud. Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WI