Lincoln Books

This is a favorite book at our house. I read it every night to our two year old. We have owned it since 1999. That year I read it to my oldest son and the rest of his first grade class. They loved it and requested a second reading so that they could shout like Sharon. This year (2003) I went back and read it to another first grade class this time my two year old was with me. The class laughed histerically because after I read what Sharon shouted my little one said it again. Their teacher told me it was the highlight of their first grade year. OK the rhyming isn't perfect but neither is Sharon. This is a very fun book!! Buy it!

Inspired by the crabby niece of award-winning Irish author and illustrator Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick, Silly Mommy, Silly Daddy is an easy reader picturebook that tells its charming story through the simplistic color illustrations as strongly as with words. Little Beth is in a sour mood and won't smile for anyone; her family tries to lift her spirits, but they're all just acting silly. Only Beth's clever big sister knows just the right remedy to turn Beth's frown upside-down! A delightfully funny storybook meant to be shared with the very young.

This is a song and dance books, and the illustrations jump and jive right off the page. Colorful, fun, and has lovely little extra elements that are fun to catch on each page (see what you find in the sky on each page, for instance). My kids love this book. You'll love it.

As we hear more and more about "smart growth," it's great to have a book like this, which takes a broad and intelligent look at the topic. The essays in this balanced collection provide a useful history of suburbia and sprawl, analyze how smart growth is defined and used today by various parties, and discuss the future of not only suburban growth but also core city development. It's fascinating--I would recommend it not only to planners and professionals, but to anyone concerned with how our communities grow.

A wonderful book that combines learning about precipitation with the wonder of creating snow animals, to discovering that you can learn from those who are younger than you. Beautiful illustrations make this an incredible treat for children and adults alike.

Debi Gliori's book, The Snowchild, is a moving story that teaches children to express themselves instead of trying to be who other people want you to be. In the story, Katie is noticably different than her peers. Because of this, her peers make fun of her and abandon her. As the story exposes, if Katie changed who she was in order to fit in, she would have lost the chance to make her own dreams come true and find true friendship. She doesn't. One morning, after a brilliant snowfall, she walks past her peers and finds her own space in order to do what no one else is doing, build a snowman. By expressing her uniqueness, she meets her true friend and soulmate! This is a great story to impress upon your children and to remind adults that every created person has unique gifts and talents to give to the world and that we should honor our children's unique gifts instead of pressuring them into fitting in.

This book was originally published in 1920 and was republished in 2005 by the University of Illinois Press, presumably with the approaching bicentennial of Lincoln's birth in mind. A new introduction was written by Michael Nelson, professor of political science at Rhodes College. Barton, who died in 1930, was a Congregational minister who became very interested in Lincoln and wrote eight books about him. This was the first and most important.
It is a very good book. Barton was not a professional historian but this book is worthy of the best of them. He did an excellent job of separating facts from the myths that arose about Lincoln after his untimely death and presents an objective analysis of Lincoln's walk toward and with God from his boyhood to his presidency. Some of Lincoln's early biographers said he was an "infidel" but Barton shows that description reflects a narrow, distorted and inaccurate view based on Lincoln's upbringing in a Calvinist Baptist home on the frontier. In that day and place not believing the earth was flat was enough to make one an infidel, and Lincoln was too intelligent for that. Lincoln's faith walk was evolutionary and, as he got older and faced the many vicissitudes of his life, he drew closer to God and one could indeed say that God became his best friend.
Barton is careful to disavow the mythical portrayals of Lincoln as a near saint which arose after his death. At the same time he gives much evidence that Lincoln not only was a good and great man but that he was a very Godly man, and this evidence comes from the private as well as the public Lincoln. "Abraham Lincoln believed in God, in Christ, in the Bible, in prayer, in duty, and in immortality" (p. 288). And, Barton argues, successfully I believe, that Lincoln lived according to his faith and that his faith shaped his politics.

in Spanish linguistics. This book gives concise but valuable information about the different linguistic variants in Spanish America and Spain. It also contains useful maps. Recommended for experts and beginner linguists!

On February 27, 1860, some three months before he won the Illinois Republican State Convention, Abraham Lincoln gave an address to the Young Men's Republican Union at the Cooper Institute in New York City. The purpose of the address was twofold. First of all, he wished to address Stephen Douglas's contention that, "Our fathers, when they framed the Government under which we live, understood this question [slavery] just as well, and even better, than we do now." Mr. Lincoln went on to examine how the men who signed the United State Constitution actually voted, showing that they did not consider the extension of slavery into federal territories to be an inalienable right. And, as such, the Republican position was entirely in keeping with the founder's ideas.

Secondly, Mr. Lincoln went on to discuss the position of the Southern Democrats, showing how, in spite of what they said, they demanded not just tolerance of their grotesque project, but its actual acceptance and approval. Indeed, he goes on to show how the Democrats used sophistry and baseless accusation to try to bring the Republican position into disrepute.

Overall, I found this to be a very interesting read. It is quite interesting to read what Abraham Lincoln actually said about slavery, and it is extremely interesting to see how the Republican vs. Democrat conflict was fought. This is an enthralling read; one that I think should be read by all Republicans today!

Children's love of water is celebrated here. Very small children will identify well with the action on each page, and will be curious to see other lovers of splashing activity. Only a select group of authors succeed in relating fully with tiny tots. Sarah Garland is such an author who holds 2,3,and 4 year olds well - and pulls their parents in too!