Book Review: Looking at Lincoln

I am finally reading Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It has been on my TBR list for awhile. So, I've had Lincoln on the brain lately. AB, eve\r the mini-me, found Looking at Lincoln by Maira Kalman. (I wish that we found it earlier because it would have been a great addition to the Historical Biographies Booklist: Politicos.)

Looking at Lincoln tells the story of a little girl who is curious about the man whose unusual face is featured on our money. She heads to the library, of course, to satisfy this curiosity. She gives the reader a nice overview of the main points of his life, with a few fun facts and speculations in between. Apparently, Lincoln's favorite opera was the Magic Flute. His favorite dessert was vanilla cake, so perhaps Mrs. Lincoln made it for him on the day he was elected. "But maybe he forgot to eat his slice. He was often too busy thinking to eat." 

The author also makes sure to touch on some of the less pleasant aspects of his presidency, namely, slavery, the Civil War, and his assassination. It would not be a true biography without them. However, she addresses them in a way that I found refreshing. They were not glossed over. She beautifully illustrates prominent African-Americans of the time, former slaves Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass. She also depicts what slavery was with an illustration of slaves picking cotton under a harsh sun while a white overseer on horseback yells as he cracks his whip. The slaves pictured include children and women, one of whom has a baby strapped to her back. It is a truly arresting illustration that you don't normally see in a picture book. In addition, there is a soldiers uniform with a bullet hole over the point of the heart, a pistol, and a empty upholstered rocking chair with a stovepipe hat laying beside it.

Maira Kalman's amazing illustrations are a crucial aid to her story telling. Her modern style is a nice change from the traditional illustrations that usually accompany historical picture books. Her writing style is also effective. She never mentions John Wilkes Booth by name, but simply refers to him as a "wretched man who did not want slavery to end." On the other hand, she makes sure the reader knows the name of one of the first soldiers killed in the Civil War. After describing his uniform with the bullet hole, she writes ,"The soldier's name was Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth. Terrible things happen in a war." The numbers of those killed in the Civil War (or any war for that matter), allow a certain dissociation. The numbers are far to large to truly grasp that each and every person killed was somebody's child. That each and every person had a name. That each and every person lived and breathed just as we do today. 

Reading this book with AB forced me to discuss some less pleasant aspects of race and history with her. To explain that her ancestors were slaves. To explain to her that her ancestors were also likely slave owners. I didn't dwell on it, because she is only six. (I mean, it's not like I'm reading Roots to her at bedtime.) But, these are things that I want her to be aware of and I want to be the one to introduce her to them. Yet, at the same time, I do not want to burden her with race. As the black mother of a biracial child, I do not want to skew her perspective of the world to be "black" perspective. So, I struggle with finding the right balance to allow her to find her on way, hopefully as color blind as possible. 

We need more historical picture books that introduce history to younger readers in an interesting factual way that is not overwhelming. Books that encourage curiosity and research. Books that encourage discussion and engagement. Looking at Lincoln is a perfect example of that type of book.