Honest Abe

Honest Abe

By: Edith Kunhardt

Paintings by: Malcah Zeldis

Genre: Biography

Grade Level: K-5

            Who is Honest Abe?  Wouldn’t you be interested in learning about a man that is called honest Abe?  Guess what?  Honest Abe is also known as Abraham Lincoln our 16^th President of the United States.  By reading the book Honest Abe, by Edith Kunhardt, you will be taken through the life of Abraham Lincoln and learn about how he went from a log cabin to the White House.  The use of great illustrations throughout the book will also keep you interested in turning the next page.  After reading this book you will become a wiz on Abraham Lincoln.

            The book Honest Abe goes through the important facts about Abraham Lincoln.  Its starts off with his birth.  He was born February 12, 1809 in Hardin County, Kentucky.  He had an older sister named Sarah.  Then it keeps on going through the life of Lincoln, like all the places he lived, his mother’s death and father’s re-marriage.   It talks about him being a lawyer and marrying Mary Todd.  One part of the book I found interesting was when it told us why he wore those tall hats.  Which he wore them to keep his bills, notes, and legal papers stored.  It talks about Lincoln’s debates with Stephen A. Douglas, who believed slavery should continue.  It then continues on with him becoming president and writing the Emancipation Proclamation (which was an important part to ending slavery).  Two years after the E.P the thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution was added, outlawing slavery forever.  It then informs us of his Gettysburg Address and then his death.

            This book is an excellent biography for young readers to read because it’s not like a history book, where it’s straight forward with the dates and then what happened on those dates.  It’s a story about Abraham Lincoln’s life.  It takes you through his life from birth to death.  At the end of the book there is a list of all the things addressed in the book with there dates, which I thought was a neat thing to add.  The illustrations in the book are great as well, they help tell the story without the use of actual pictures and the clothing that the people in the book are wearing makes it easy for readers to get an idea of the time era.  All the details that are portrayed in this biography are accurate.  The way the author ties in all of Lincoln’s great accomplishes really tells the reader how important Lincoln was to our history and still today.  This is a great book to use during a history lesson.  It also uses simple words so it’s easy for kids to read on their own.

MA ELA Frameworks

2.1 Contribute knowledge to class discussion in order to develop a topic for a class project.

5.2 Recognize that the names of things can also be the names of actions (fish, dream, run).

5.3 Identify correct capitalization for names and places (Janet, I, George Washington, Springfield), and correct capitalization and commas in dates (February 24, 2001).

5.4 Identify appropriate end marks (periods, question marks).

       *7.1 Demonstrate understanding of the forms and functions of written English:

·         recognize that printed materials provide information or entertaining stories;

·         know how to handle a book and turn the pages;

·         identify the covers and title page of a book;

·         recognize that, in English, print moves left to right across the page and from top to bottom;

·         identify upper- and lower-case letters;

·         recognize that written words are separated by spaces;

·         recognize that sentences in print are made up of separate words.

8.6 Make predictions about what will happen next in a story, and explain whether they were confirmed or 

      disconfirmed and why.

8.7 Retell a story’s beginning, middle, and end.

8.8 Distinguish cause from effect.

10.2 Distinguish among forms of literature such as poetry, prose, fiction, nonfiction, and drama and apply this knowledge as a strategy for reading and writing.