Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship [Hardcover]

Nikki Giovanni (Author), Bryan Collier (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2008 | Age Level: 6 and up | Grade Level: 1 and up

Our 16th president is known for many things: He delivered the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address.He was tall and skinny and notoriously stern-looking. And he also had some very strong ideas about abolishing slavery, ideas which brought him into close contact with another very visible public figure: Frederick Douglass. Douglass was born a slave but escaped in 1838 and became one of the central figures in the American abolitionist movement.

This book offers a glimpse into the unusual friendship between two great American leaders. At a time when racial tensions were high and racial equality was not yet established, Lincoln and Douglass formed a strong bond over shared ideals and worked alongside each other for a common goal.

The acclaimed team behind Rosa, winner of the Coretta Scott King Award and a Caldecott Honor book, join forces once more to portray this historic friendship at a unique moment in time.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The collaborators of the well-received Rosa (2005) come together again, but disappointingly this time. The setting here is an 1865 inaugural reception at the White House, where Frederick Douglass is an invited guest. Douglass is sent to a rear door but refuses that entrance. Did any of this actually happen? Who knows? There are no source notes, only a time line. Moreover, Mary Todd Lincoln is inaccurately portrayed (one of the worst lapses of the book) as a Southern sympathizer, saying no Negro should be at the White House, yet history tells us she was against slavery and even sent Lincoln’s walking stick to Douglass after the president was assassinated. The narrative itself is choppy, with the incident at Harper’s Ferry—not very well explained—stuck in the middle of the book. Collier’s stylized collage art is occasionally a saving grace, especially in the scenes of both men’s boyhoods, and a fold-out spread that juxtaposes the horror of war against a glittering White House ball is quite spectacular. The relationship between Douglass and Lincoln could make for a fascinating book, but this one is only a very secondary purchase until something better (and better documented) comes along. Grades 1-4. --Ilene Cooper

About the Author

 

Nikki Giovanni has written many books of poetry for children and adults. She is the author of Rosa, a Caldecott Honor book, The Genie in the Jar, and Ego-tripping and Other Poems for Young People. Giovanni calls herself, "a Black American, a daughter, a mother, a professor of English." She was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and grew up in Lincoln Heights, an all-black suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. She studied at Fisk University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University.

 

She published her first book of poetry, Black Feeling Black Talk, in 1968, and since then has become one of America’s most widely read poets. Oprah Winfrey named her as one of her twenty-five “Living Legends.” Her autobiography Gemini was a finalist for the National Book Award, and several of her books have received NAACP Image Awards. She has received some twenty-five honorary degrees, been named Woman of the Year by Mademoiselle Magazine, The Ladies Home Journal and Ebony, was the first recipient of the Rosa L. Parks Woman of Courage Award, and has been awarded the Langston Hughes Medal for poetry.

 

Nikki Giovanni lives in Christiansburg, Virginia, where she is a professor of English at Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

 

Bryan Collier is the illustrator of the acclaimed Rosa and the author/illustrator of Uptown, winner of the Coretta Scott King Award and the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award. He is also the illustrator of Martin’s Big Words, a Caldecott Honor Book. Mr. Collier lives with his family in New York.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 6 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR); 1st edition (September 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805082646
• ISBN-13: 978-0805082647
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #674,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Muddy art and historical inaccuracies, December 17, 2009

By 

Steven S. Lapham (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship (Hardcover)

In this book, the illustrations are so dark that everybody at the Inaugural Ball (and on both sides of the Civil War battle scene!) looks African American. The book opens with a whopping historical error: Mrs. Lincoln in sympathy with slavery. And the real substance of this historic friendship (Douglass arguing rightly that "colonizing" freed blacks to Africa and Central America was a bad idea; Lincoln disagreed, but gradually changed his mind) is not even hinted at. Now that is a complex topic, but a great children's book would grapple with it somehow, and demonstrate for kids how two great minds can have a sharp debate and yet respect each other.
A friendship with no edge is no friendship at all. And a book with no merit should not be published.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book., January 6, 2012

By 

Randie (Iowa, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship (Hardcover)

Nikki Giovanni actually read portions of this book aloud to me (and others) at an event on April 18th, 20ll at the university I attend. She has a dry, quirky sense of humor that I really enjoyed, so I had to order this book. And I liked it! It was nice to see a new side of these American leaders. My only complaint is that the pages about Harper's Ferry and John Brown (while important) take the focus away from Lincoln's and Douglass' story.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good kid's book on little-known history, December 11, 2008

By 

Andre M. "brnn64" (Mt. Pleasant, SC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship (Hardcover)

One of my favorite stories in American History is how Frederick Douglass educated himself up from slavery and negotiated with Lincoln on slavery and civil rights. I've done monologues on this for my students in the US and African-American history classes that I teach. So it was good to see that Nikki Giovanni (with the help of artist Bryan Collier) has brought this story to a younger generation.

Just enough detail is given on the backgrounds of both men and the times and events of their lifetimes so that children will understand why it was so outstanding for Lincoln to invite Douglass to his inaugural ball in 1865. This is really interesting for parents to discuss with the kiddies, especially in light of the (at the time of this writing) upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama and the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth.

Overall, this book is a great example of storytelling as history for younger readers. Parents, if you want a relatively inexpensive but educational and enjoyable gift for your children this Christmas, then this is it! Incidentally, adults can read the full story of this incident and friendship in Douglass' own "Life and Times of Frederick Douglass."