Who Was Abraham Lincoln?

Who Was . . . ? Series

by Janet B. Pascal, Nancy Harrison (Illustrations), John O'Brien (illustrator)

Born to a family of farmers, Lincoln stood out from an early age—literally! (He was six feet four inches tall.) As sixteenth President of the United States, he guided the nation through the Civil War and saw the abolition of slavery. But Lincoln was tragically shot one night at Ford’s Theater—the first President to be assassinated. Over 100 black-and-white illustrations and maps are included.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Childrens, Civil War, American History, Spanish Literature

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Janet Pascal, author of many YA biographies and Viking’s senior copy-editor, lives in New York, New York.

Reviews

[Mostafa Galal · Rating 2 out of 5]

لا أحب تلك الكتب التي تقدم معلومات عامة عن شخصية ما، دون أن تحاول الاقتراب من جوهر تلك الشخصية

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abraham Lincoln, often called America’s greatest president, came from very humble beginnings. His father had little schooling and his mother could read, but not write. They were honest people, who moved from one small farm to another in order to scratch out a living. They moved from Kentucky to Indiana, because Kentucky was a slave state, while Indiana was a free state. Later, they ended up on a tiny farm in Illinois. All children worked hard, helping the parents.

Abraham received very little schooling, but he got his basics, which was how to read and write. That enabled him to learn on his own.

Abraham didn’t want to be a farmer. His journey took him from helping to sail flatboats, to managing a store in New Salem, where he enjoyed town’s debates. That led him to politics. If people mistrusted him, he rolled up his sleeves and joined them in their work. That’s how he earned people’s respect and trust. Later, becoming a state lawyer.

When the country was divided over slavery, Abraham joined the newly founded party called Republican, which was against the slavery. The whole country followed the Lincoln-Douglas debates. The main issue was slavery.

When he was chosen for president, the southern states, which hated him, seceded from the Union. Soon, the Civil War began.

After signing Emancipation Proclamation, many slaves escaped the south and joined the Union army. And with the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution the slavery was outlawed.

With John Wilkes Booth assassination of the president, people across the country mourned one of the greatest presidents, who kept the country together during its darkest times.

This illustrated biography for young readers, ages 8-12, is presented in a relatable way. With short simple sentences the biography has a crisp flow. It brings a wonderful example of a man, who rose from poverty with minimum education, which allowed him to self-teach himself and gain the valuable knowledge to propel himself to become the sixteenth president. With his likeable personality and great sense of humor, he easily won people over and united them.

The biography is filled with interesting facts and inserts, for example, Sarah Josepha Hale thought there should be a specific day dedicated to Thanksgiving, which was celebrated by pilgrims, but there was no specific day for it. The previous presidents didn’t listen to her until Abraham Lincoln. He set the last Thursday of November as a day to give thanks for the survival of the nation.

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book in the series!

Who was Abraham Lincoln?
By Janet Pascal
This book has everything a person new to learning about Lincoln, or wanting to add to their knowledge about him, needs to start. This book gives kids a perfect, well rounded and fairly good background on our beloved President in an easy to understand way and in an entertaining way too! It will cover all the basics and then some! Lots of tidbits of extra interesting info too!

[Daniel Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honest Abe only had one year’s worth in schooling but he learned how to read. He was the first president to have young children in the Whitehouse. All previous presidents only had adult children. And Lincoln let them run around freely without discipline.

[Janete on hiatus due health issues · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abraham Lincoln was an exceptional person and president. Americans are very fortunate to have had a president like this at a very difficult time in their history. I loved this book and also all the new informations it brought me about Lincoln.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, doesn't shy away from the truth or whitewash.

[Sarah Swann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for kids who want to learn more about President Lincoln. I even learned some new things, like how Lincoln was the one who established celebrating Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November...I didn’t know that! Enjoyed this one.

[Jack Vagianelis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the character trait is loyal because he stayed loyal to his union.

[Margret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great series and enjoyable.

[Lincoln G · Rating 5 out of 5]

The main character is Abe Lincoln and his character strength was that he was a strong leader I know this because he lead the us out of the civil war.

[Sydney Funk · Rating 5 out of 5]

• This illustrated biography tells the life of President Abraham Lincoln in a way that is fun and exciting for young readers. The book shows readers Lincoln’s life in a relatable way. It tells of his childhood, his presidency, all the way through his death in 1865.
• Grades 3-6
• This could be use in an English class or a History class.
• Individual students who would benefit from this book include students who are interested in history, Presidents, the civil war, or biographies.
• This could be used in a literature circle to learn more about Abraham Lincoln. Students could complete a short book report about Lincoln, his life and presidency
• This book could be used to connect history and English classes. This book could be used when learning about biographies in English class and the civil war in history class. This is a great way to show students that each subject is not an independent of the others, they all connect.
• Books like this include the rest of the Who Was series. These books make biographies interesting to young readers. The series includes a large selection of famous names to choose from.
• This book is also available as an eBook

[Aiden]

nonfiction. might like if you read. (YAY) LOL

[Rhonda Puente-Trevino · Rating 4 out of 5]

This simplified biography tells an engaging overview of Abraham Lincoln's Life in great detail. Perfect chapter book to introduce biography to children that is filled with interesting facts about him. For example, he issued the last Thursday of November as a day to give thanks for the survival of the nation. Do you remember what dollar bill and coin he appears on?

Who Was Abraham Lincoln? is fun and engaging facts for young readers to understand. This book is a biography defines itself:bio=life, graph= something that is written. This series of published, Who WAS books such as this one is published by Grosset and Dunlap. "Though vividly illustrated these books emphasize text rather than illustration (Young, pg. 193)." Recommended age range: 8-12 years.

I personally enjoy read out louds with my 8 yr. old and enjoy seeing him engaged in this biography of Lincoln's life, but without being overwhelmed with details or bored. The Who Was books include timelines at the end of the book to easily follow their life. Parents and/or Teachers can do alot with this biography. For instance, if you are teaching over the civil war and/or introducing chronicles. Highly recommend this book along with Lincoln: A Photobiography referenced in children's literature as one of many others written and treasured over the years.

[Ille · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Who Was Abraham Lincoln?' by Janet B. Pascal is in the Who Was series, which is short biographies for young readers about inspirational people.
This book was about Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth American President who issued the Emancipation Proclamation. A very interesting book.

[Sharla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed for Heartland School.

[Erin Britt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short easy chapters. Good for early readers or for reading time to a group. My crew enjoyed it, and it allowed for good conversation afterward.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the theme is, do what makes you happy

[Lilie Avila · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good book because it is informational and it is cool for me to know about our greatest president ever! It was cool to know that Abe.. Lincoln had a cool childhood. I recommend for people who love to know new things.

[Yoyo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent introductory book about Abraham Lincoln and the civil war. I really recommend this for some light reading about American history.

[Farah Al.Mosawi💜📚 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great biography book, let u know who's Lincoln and why he studied the low ?!
Like this series because it's focus on The people who changed the world all their lives .

[Some Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

The usual from this wonderful children series. I’ve read about ten of them. Simple language, short, informative, enjoyable, but not anything deep.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read during our historic vacation. Bought this in a series for our kids. Enjoyed it.

[Victor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who was Abraham Lincoln


This book was about Abraham Lincoln and fun facts about him such as it talks about when he was elected for president and a bunch of other fun facts. The book also talks about slavery and the end of slavery and the civil war. The book gets a little boring but it gets more interesting. There is also a part where it talks about Abraham Lincoln to not like slavery. And he is one of the reasons why Barack Obama was a president. Also there is whole series of the who was books.

[Alli Serrano]

This book provides a lot of information regarding the life of Abraham Lincoln. It does this chronologically going through multiple events, big and small, that are important to his life, and represents who he has become. It covers relationships with his family, as well as professional relationships. It explains his long journey in becoming president through all his failures as well as successes.


As this book provides a great amount of information, it does this effectively for the age group. I was almost surprised on how much information was included. It also is very organized. It has a table of contents, and separates each topic by chapters which makes it easy for a reader to follow along in a chapter book, as well as go back and find something quickly. The author also includes simple black and white illustrations which add to the text, and again make it easier for the reader to understand the text. As well, the book also includes excerpts of additional information (e.g. the civil war) to help the reader gain more knowledge on a topic that is important in understanding his life. At the end of the book, the author has included two timelines at the end of the book that compare Lincoln's life with the events happening in the world. Overall, this book provides a lot of accurate information while remaining entertaining and interesting to the reader. I would definitely recommend this book, as well as the series.

[Masao Koda · Rating 5 out of 5]

1. Penguin no level
2. 12/28=120min, 1/3=20min, 1/6=15min
3. Lincoln, president, lawyer, slavery earnest, kill, honored
4. (a) The next day, a huge audience gathered. Lincoln spoke for three hours. Douglas's arguments, he said, only made sense if you didn't think of blacks as people. Lincoln thought blacks should have the same right to decide agout their lives as white people. He said that America had been founded on the belief that "no man is good enougth to govern another man without that other's consent," no matter what color the person was.
(b)This passage is really impressive for me. As Lincoln said, I think we can't control someone without his consent. Even now, there are many people who have prejudice against black people in America and other countries. So I want them to keep what Lincoln said in their mind and live.
5. I didn't know Lincoln in detail except for his wise saying , "government of the people, by the people, for the people." But by reading this book, I can understand what he looked like, what he did and why he is very famous. I think if he didn't exist at the time, America might be still divided in two parts and slavery might continue. I really respect him.

[Kyosuke Torihara · Rating 5 out of 5]

1. Who was ...?
2. 150min.
3. Lincoln, study, a year, joker, speaker, great, president
4. a)He had a habit of carrying important papers around inside his tall stovepipe hat. Sometime he lost them.
b) When I read those sentences, I felt this situation was so funny. In my case, I put the important papers into the case to keep safety. His way is completely different from my way. That's why, I like it.
5. I think great men take actions what the people don't do. In Lincoln's case, he tried to emancipate slaves and to do abolition. I think becoming pioneer is really hard because it is really scary something might be happen. So those person is brave. I want to be those kind of person. One more thing, when he was a child, he was really poor and didn't afford to buy papers to study. But he studied and wrote down on the wood. When it became black, he shaved the surface and wrote again. When I knew this fact, I thought he was smart and gave me an opportunity that we are living in a comfortable life. We must glad.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been reading a handful of the books in this series because many of the middle-grade readers at the library where I work are fascinated by them and want to read the whole series. They are a great way for kids, and adults, to get a simple but engaging overview of a particular person or subject. Lincoln is no exception; while most Americans study his life at some point in school, there were many anecdotes in this book that I had either forgotten or didn’t know in the first place. For example, that Willie Lincoln’s coffin was brought home with his father’s for re-burial (having just read George Saunders’s Lincoln in the Bardo, this really struck me). I think kids would also enjoy details like the fact that Lincoln only had about a year of formal schooling, or that Willie and Tad were not disciplined by their parents and were permitted to run roughshod all over the White House. Although child-oriented and child-friendly, this book and series are enjoyable and helpful for all ages, with handy timelines included.

[Kassandra Edmondson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This biography of Abraham Lincoln is perfect for children looking to learn more about our 16th president. This book goes through the major points of President Lincoln's life in chronological order, and provides interesting facts along the way. The illustrations and maps that are provided in this book are very helpful and accompany the written information well. It was enjoyable to read because it was very well organized and the subtitles/ highlighted words were good indicators of important facts.

This book contained various characteristics such as a table of contents, and headings that made it easy to read. I would recommend this book if you are looking to learn/teach about how to read informational books, or would like to introduce a child to the world of non-fiction writing. I would say the age group for this book is 2nd to 4th grade, since the language is simple, and it provides definitions for harder words.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abraham Lincoln is one of the presidents that most of us are familiar with. When I was in college I got to do a semester touring some US historical sites and we got to go to Springfield and see the Lincoln sites.

Lincoln was basically self-taught. He only went to school for a year and then he used books to learn everything else. (My personal favorite way to learn.) Even the law, he was never formally trained. He just read books and found he was good at it. He was very good at debating and that's how he caught peoples' attention during the races.

One thing I didn't know was that he was a prankster. On one occasion he managed to have two grooms delivered to the wrong brides. :D

Lincoln had a tough gig as president. He really did. I'm glad that he was the guy in charge. He was modest, steady, and kind. The country needed someone like that at the helm.

Great book!

[kayla elledge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have this book 5 stars because he is a fair person and he's honest