A. LINCOLN AND ME

A boy who shares Abraham Lincoln’s birthday muses on what Lincoln means to him. He’s tall and skinny and has big hands and feet, just like A. Lincoln (he didn’t like to be called Abe). “Big buttons on his coat. Big words in his heart. Big hands and big feet like mine” the boy notes as he passes a bronze statue of Lincoln while riding the school bus. When the boy’s buddies call him “Butterfingers” and “Butterfeet” because he stumbles into wet paint, his teacher tells him that Lincoln was called names such as “gorilla” and “baboon.” Lewin’s illustrations are the clear, realistically modeled watercolors readers have come to expect, placed over or against black-and-white drawings of Lincoln. These images of Lincoln at different points in his life make a powerful collage, which Lewin creates with fervor. There’s nothing preachy about Borden’s text, which makes the boy’s connection to this historical figure immediate, honest, and straightforward. It introduces Lincoln with beautiful simplicity to the youngest of children. (Picture book. 4-8)