Twelve-year-old Mina Edelman is convinced that her family is the reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln's. Her father has the same initials and also cares passionately about social justice, sneaking her off to hear Martin Luther King and participate in fair-housing protests in Chicago. But when he brings his idealism home to suburban Downers Grove, 1960s violence touches their own lives and divides her family. Brandeis has created an appealing, quirky protagonist, still childlike in her sensibilities and understanding. Convinced that she is going to die young, like her almost-namesake Willie Lincoln, she diagnoses the pain in her developing breasts as incipient heart failure. She worries that her mother will go crazy and her father will be assassinated. Middle-school readers will know better but enjoy this humorous first-person glimpse into her misconstrued world. Adults don't see so clearly, either. In her first novel for young readers, the author goes beyond usual stories of the civil-rights movement, demonstrating well-intentioned but tone-deaf gestures of white supporters and the discomfort of change. (Historical fiction. 10-14)
My dad used to be Abraham Lincoln. When I was six and learning to read, I saw his initials were A.B.E., Albert Baruch Edelman. ABE. That's when I knew.
Mina Edelman*believes that she and her family are the Lincolns reincarnated. Her main tasks for the next three months: to protect her father from assassination, her mother from insanity, and herself-Willie Lincoln incarnate-from death at age twelve.
*
Apart from that, the summer of 1966 should be like any other. But Mina's dad begins taking Mina along to hear speeches by Martin Luther King*Jr. in Chicago. And soon he brings the freedom movement to their own small town, with consequences for everyone.
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Mina Edelman*believes that she and her family are the Lincolns reincarnated. Her main tasks for the next three months: to protect her father from assassination, her mother from insanity, and herself-Willie Lincoln incarnate-from death at age twelve.
*
Apart from that, the summer of 1966 should be like any other. But Mina's dad begins taking Mina along to hear speeches by Martin Luther King*Jr. in Chicago. And soon he brings the freedom movement to their own small town, with consequences for everyone.
My Life with the Lincolns
My dad used to be Abraham Lincoln. When I was six and learning to read, I saw his initials were A.B.E., Albert Baruch Edelman. ABE. That's when I knew.
Mina Edelman*believes that she and her family are the Lincolns reincarnated. Her main tasks for the next three months: to protect her father from assassination, her mother from insanity, and herself-Willie Lincoln incarnate-from death at age twelve.
*
Apart from that, the summer of 1966 should be like any other. But Mina's dad begins taking Mina along to hear speeches by Martin Luther King*Jr. in Chicago. And soon he brings the freedom movement to their own small town, with consequences for everyone.
Mina Edelman*believes that she and her family are the Lincolns reincarnated. Her main tasks for the next three months: to protect her father from assassination, her mother from insanity, and herself-Willie Lincoln incarnate-from death at age twelve.
*
Apart from that, the summer of 1966 should be like any other. But Mina's dad begins taking Mina along to hear speeches by Martin Luther King*Jr. in Chicago. And soon he brings the freedom movement to their own small town, with consequences for everyone.
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Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940172165498 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Random House |
| Publication date: | 02/09/2010 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Age Range: | 10 - 13 Years |
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