YOUNG ABE LINCOLN
by Cheryl Harness & illustrated by Cheryl Harness
A folksy, genial biography, subtitled ``The Frontier Days, 18091837,'' this is an accessible if bland work. From his log-cabin birth and hardscrabble boyhood to his emergence as a politician, Abraham Lincoln is portrayed as a frontier Everyman, with ``shirttail a'flappin' '' and a love of learning. Not cut out for farming (though from an early age he ``swung his axe alongside the big boys''), sad-eyed Abe ``wanted to work with his mind.'' He contemplates ``the restless river of ideas'' as a flatboatman, joins a debating society, gets elected to the Illinois General Assembly, and sets out to be a lawyer in the new state capital. Harness (Papa's Christmas Gift, 1995, etc.) provides highly detailed, occasionally stiff illustrations, along with maps that reflect the land divisions of the times. Harness will cover more of Abe's life in a future book. (bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 5-10)