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Tell me love, what are you thinking of?

I was thinking how there are certain times of the night
when the dead wipe the frost from their souls and weep.

Of nothing simpler?

Of a courtyard I once visited and of a woman 
standing beside a statue covered in snow.

Of no-one? No-one else?

She was so beautiful.
Had she been made of nettles I'd have wanted her.

Why think of her now, at this moment?

Because I am still missing the ashes of the dead and of dead obsessions

Why answer me like this?

Because I am bankrupt of small comforts, of small deceits.
Because we two are new, and without history, 
And treasonous memory sleeps in so many beds.

BRIAN PATTEN

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Dewey: 973.7092








The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary by Candace Fleming, Schwartz & Wade, 2008




Candace Fleming has a gift for finding those stories in history that would be lost to children if she did not tell them.

A Big Cheese for the White House: The True Tale of a Tremendous Cheddar and Boxes for Katje are two of my favorite Fleming books.


Here, Fleming focuses on the Lincoln's personal life, telling the story in a scrapbook format.
My own family has a scrapbook that was kept by my great-grandmother while living on the Wyoming frontier in the late 19th century. The look of this book bears a strong resemblance to that family heirloom with clippings from magazines and newspapers papers that give a feel for the time. The book design and even the typeface, Old Times American, brings the 1800's to life.

Fleming has included material from letters and archives that paint a picture of Lincoln family life. Her notes and picture credits at the end of the book testify to her research. Period photographs, cartoons, and illustrations carry the reader through their story, from start to finish but also invite browsing for an odd fact or two.

My original plan to skim through the book was, thankfully, defeated by Fleming's clear and engaging writing which sent me scurrying back to the beginning to read the whole thing.

The outlines of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln's lives are generally known. "The rest of the story" that is presented here makes for fascinating reading.

I did NOT know:

• that Abe's relationship with his father was so poor that he did not attend his father's funeral
  
  
• that he devised and patented a devise to lift boats over sandbars and shallows but never developed or tested the idea commercially
  
  
• that his law practice, before entering politics, was highly successful and very profitable (makes sense but the image of Henry Fonda in Young Mr. Lincoln, riding that mule is strong)
  
  
• that he returned all campaign donations, except for $.75, to his political supporters, thanking them and explaining that he had not need the extra money.
  Oh, if ONLY that were true today, a model for us all!

Personally, I have always believed that Mary Lincoln's image and memory were misunderstood and abused by her contemporaries and by history. The reader will feel deep empathy for this woman who lost her children to typhoid and pleurisy and saw her husband murdered, before her eyes.

• The image of her recipe for white cake, "from the kitchen of Mrs. Lincoln and pages from Godey Lady's Book give the reader an feel for what her daily life was like.
  
  
• Fleming presents the reader with the Lincoln's wedding certificate and, later, the headlines about the trial that resulted in her commitment to an insane asylum by her son, Robert.
  
  
• There is no doubt Mary Lincoln was unconventional and difficult. I cheered though, at the story of her emerging from her deep grief following the assassination, to thwart the self aggrandizing plans of the Springfield community leaders who were ignoring her and the President's wishes for his final resting place.
  
  
• Mary's desperation to escape her incarceration in the asylum drove her to cannily contact a leading woman lawyer who took up her cause and helped free her.
  
  

Fleming has documented her sources and includes a note about her research. That part of the book is worth sharing with students who are embarking on their own research papers. This is a moving and engaging look into our sixteenth president's family life which is pitched perfectly for middle grade and older readers.

I recommend using this as a nonfiction class read-aloud. Educators who are worried about standardized tests need to model nonfiction reading for students.

Candace Fleming, what an outstanding achievement!

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Strongest Memories from My Wedding Day Originally uploaded by teachergal I was perusing the Stories in Hand Sparks from Jessica Sprague’s Online Class I took last month. With just eight days left until my first anniversary, I felt the need to do one from the dating and marriage sub-category. I selected the following spark, “List [...]

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Ali Edwards wrote the following today in her Words + Photos Post (Day Three): What if you encouraged your kids (by example and through encouragement) to be the kind of people who grow up telling their own stories? To me, this is the kind of work we’re doing in Writing Workshop. But it makes me wonder… [...]

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I gathered all four of the students who completed 31 Slices of Life during March for a luncheon today. School food for main courses and some Entemann’s for dessert. They informed me about the way they’d like their Slices to be preserved. Two selected a digital scrapbook and two asked me to do it [...]

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