Abe Lincoln's Stepmother and Others Helped Him to Stand Tall

I'm a big fan of the show LOST, which has always explored the impact that accidental interactions can have upon a life. Events on the island itself are being increasingly revisited, allowing viewers to examine their importance. What were the turning points in these castaways' lives, on the island and off?

Author Judith St. George is very interested in "turning points" as they apply to U.S. Presidents. In Stand Tall, Abe Lincoln, she focuses on the childhood of the sixteenth President, trying to determine what some of his most formative moments may have been. Matt Faulkner furnished the gouache illustrations, which are full two-page spreads in a caricature style similar to that of C. F. Payne, who used to do the back-cover pictures for Reader's Digest.

The book is divided into six chapters of six to eight pages, with about a dozen solid paragraphs for each chapter, taking Lincoln through adolescence. The narrative itself only hints at the accomplishments and attitudes that would mark his adulthood, while a biographical sketch in the back provides a basic outline, leaving out any mention of his wife and sons. By contrast, his childhood family is of the utmost significance here.

I've always been fascinated by Lincoln, and St. George offers details I can't remember coming across before, though they're so noteworthy I'm surprised more books haven't mentioned them. For instance, when he was three, his baby brother Thomas died when he was a only few days old. A couple years later, he had a beloved pet pig that his father slaughtered. Shortly before his mother died of milk sickness, his aunt and uncle, who had recently moved to Indiana, died of the same disease, and their teenage son moved in with the Lincolns. He endured many difficult times.

But more positive events also shaped him. He went to school at the age of six, where he learned to read and made his first friend, who rescued him from potential drowning in a turbulent creek. When he was eleven, though he hadn't had formal schooling in years, he helped his neighbors read and write mail and discovered that most of them had suffered as deeply as he had. Of all the events in his young life, St. George seems to place the most emphasis upon the arrival of his stepmother Sally, who brought books and was tireless in her efforts to provide for his education.

This is one of the wordier picture book biographies of Lincoln I've read, though the illustrations are an integral part of the tale. Faulkner's characters are very expressive, his backgrounds evocative. I especially like his depiction of the Lincolns' arrival in Indiana. I'd recommend Stand Tall, Abe Lincoln for children ten and up because of its length and its fairly stark examination of his boyhood tragedies. It's a fascinating account acknowledging that it takes many steps to reach great heights.