ABE LINCOLN AT LAST! by Mary Pope Osborne

Osborne, Mary Pope. Illus. Sal Murdoca. Abe Lincoln at Last! Random House Children’s Books, 2011. ISBN-13: 9780375868252. $12.99.

Special Feature: Review by an elementary school student.


Abe Lincoln At Last! is part of the Magic Tree House series, in which a tree house time machine takes two kids to different historical eras. I think Abe Lincoln at Last! was really fantastic because it had two stories in one, and it was really interesting! The first half of the book was really about saving Penny the penguin, who was turned into a stone statue, and the other half was about getting a feather from Abraham Lincoln. The Feather of Hope had two important purposes. The first purpose was for writing a letter of hope to Abraham Lincoln to not give up freeing the slaves. The second was for saving Penny. The Feather of Hope, along with the emerald rose and the buttercup from other books in this series, is needed to turn Penny back into a penguin.

The story was interesting because it went back in the past, and you can tell it was hard to live a long time ago. I would have a hard time doing chores like cutting the wood, getting water from a stream, and milking the cows! These were all jobs that kids had to do each day.

I really like this story, and I would like to read the next story in the series to find out about the emerald rose and the buttercup. I like the ideas that the author put in the story, and I would recommend it to my friends.

Review by Finnegan McCool, 5th grade

Review: MIRROR MIRROR by Marilyn Singer

Singer, Marilyn. Mirror Mirror. Illus. Josee Masse. NY: Dutton, 2010. ISBN 0-525-47901-7. $16.99.

These short reversible story poems are intellectual delights: each page’s left side poem is read top to bottom, then is reversed line for line in the right side poem, which, enjoyably, also makes perfect sense as well as a good poem. Word order isn’t changed, only occasional punctuation. Singer’s originals are a model for potential writing sessions in classrooms. Poetry can be fun!

The poems are versions of famous fairy tales, so content like “Rapunzel” and “Snow White” is readily recognizable. On the opposite page are illustrations rich in color and design, also mirroring the poems—the left side illustration matches the left side poem, and the right side painting encapsulates the poem, the story element, in its reverse. Masse juxtaposes the two paintings superbly so they play off each other, as in the Frog Prince and Beauty and the Beast. The sense of design is beautiful.

Alida Allison

Review: HUMPTY DUMPTY AND FRIENDS by Oleg Lipchenko

Lipchenko, Oleg. Humpty Dumpty and Friends. Toronto: Tundra Books, 2010. ISBN 1-77049-205-9. $17.95.

This version of Mother Goose is superb. Lipchenko’s remarkably fine illustrations accompany Tundra Books’ unusual selection of nursery rhymes. With full color, full page pastel wonders of detailed perspective on the right page and two smaller, soft black and white pictures, page decorations, and two poems on the left, Lipchenko’s ingenuity is everywhere evident. A color page such as the one illustrating “Robbin the Bobbin,The big-bellied Ben…” are full of angles and sub-scenes and surprises, enough on each page to last a long time. In addition, this collection features rhymes not in the typical canon. For example:

The captain was a duck
With a packet on his back;
When the ship began to move,
The captain said, “Quack, quack!”

The illustration of this poem is hilarious, as are they all.

Alida Allison