<i>My Brother Abe: Sally Lincoln's Story</i> (review)
2009; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 62; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/bcc.0.0678
ISSN1558-6766
Autores Tópico(s)American Constitutional Law and Politics
ResumoReviewed by: My Brother Abe: Sally Lincoln's Story Hope Morrison Mazer, Harry My Brother Abe: Sally Lincoln's Story. Simon, 2009202p ISBN 978-1-4169-3884-2$15.99 R Gr. 4-6 Very little is known about Abraham Lincoln's older sister, Sally, who died at age twenty-one, missing the entirety of her brother's political career. Working with the few available facts, Mazer has successfully imagined a story of the Lincoln children's childhood told from Sally's point of view. The book emphasizes the years when the Lincolns, having left Kentucky, were just getting started in Indiana territory, years punctuated by class struggle, physical hardship, the tragedy of Abe and Sally's mother's early death, and the challenge of adjusting to a new stepmother, Sarah Bush Johnston. Sally is portrayed as a spunky, chatty girl who frequently speaks up when she shouldn't, a personality that contrasts with that of her more demure mother. In fact, Sally's admiration for her mother ("Mama's way was acceptance and contentment. I wanted to be more like her") is pivotal in understanding the girl's character and the loss she experiences with the death of her mother. The short chapters present a string of scenarios, woven together to tell the more complete story of the family's process of adjustment while simultaneously informing the reader about the various and evolving relationships within the family; the reader is then left to infer how these relationships may have impacted the early life of the sixteenth president. The frame story of Abraham Lincoln's sister aside, this is solid historical fiction, offering a unique and likable protagonist and a believable recounting of historical events. An afterword offers further historical information, and a brief glossary identifies unfamiliar words used in the text. Copyright © 2009 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
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