My Life with the Lincolns [Hardcover]

Gayle Brandeis (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

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 task 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.

 

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–8—It's the summer of 1966, and sixth-grader Mina has her work cut out for her. Her overactive imagination has convinced her that because her father's initials spell "ABE," the Edelmans are the Lincolns reincarnated. Now she must save her family from their fate. This means making sure that she doesn't die of bilious fever, that her dad doesn't get assassinated, and that her mother doesn't go crazy. Mina is unclear what bilious fever is, but frequently sprays herself with OFF!, just in case. Her father, inspired by the history of discrimination against his Jewish heritage, decides to take her, without her mother's knowledge, to civil-rights protests in nearby Chicago where they participate in an all-night vigil and get involved in real-estate testing to prove racism in rentals. Mina's parents grow apart, and her father forms a friendship with a fellow protester and African American, Carla. At the end, Mina is ready to let go of her notion of reincarnation and wrestles with issues of injustice and discrimination. Brandeis seamlessly intersperses serious topics with laugh-out-loud humor. Mina is a budding journalist, writing a newsletter full of Lincoln lore to promote her father's furniture store, Honest Abe's. Her voice is clear and unique; her view of life's confusions is endearing and funny. The setting is perfectly captured, from Johnny Carson on television to bouffant hairdos. While the book's humor may be the first attraction for young readers, this is also a solid addition to historical-fiction collections.—Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School Library, South Portland, ME
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Twelve-year-old Mina Edelman is convinced that her family members are the Lincolns reincarnate, and she has many coincidences to back her up, such as their Illinois roots, her father’s initials (A.B.E.), and her instinctual preoccupation to protect him from potential assassination. Belief in civil rights is another link, and in this summer of 1966, the news is all about Martin Luther King Jr.’s leadership of the Chicago Freedom Movement in a housing campaign, with which A.B.E., a well-meaning if sometimes awkward suburban furniture salesman, and Mina become deeply involved. Vietnam, interracial dating, machine politics, parental separation, a mass murder, and puberty are also part of the story, which includes some racially derogatory language. The narrative voice wavers in Brandeis’ first foray into writing for children, but both the plot and pacing are sound, and the historical elements are accurate, with one exception: the Bears didn’t play football at Soldier Field until the 1970s. Most importantly, the strong theme of social justice creates a unifying thread in this informative, clear, personal, and passionate novel. Grades 5-7. --Andrew Medlar

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR); First Edition edition (March 16, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805090134
• ISBN-13: 978-0805090130
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #913,303 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am the author of Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write (HarperSanFrancisco), The Book of Dead Birds: A Novel (HarperCollins), which won Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether Prize for Fiction in Support of a Literature of Social Change, Self Storage (Ballantine), Delta Girls (Ballantine) and my first novel for young readers, My Life with the Lincolns (Henry Holt Books for Young Readers). The Book of Live Wires, the sequel to The Book of Dead Birds, is available now exclusively as an ebook. You can visit me at www.gaylebrandeis.com. It's always a pleasure to hear from readers.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific Read!, October 29, 2011

By 

Mary Katherine Bush (Mableton, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: My Life with the Lincolns (Hardcover)

This book was great! It's quite humorous and captures the innocence and creativity of a preteen girl. It's insight on the civil rights movement was both touching and liberating. I love this book and I would recommend it to anyone who believes in social justice or who just wants something they won't be able to put down!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars funny and touching story set in Chicago in 1968, May 31, 2010

By 

M. Tanenbaum (Claremont, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: My Life with the Lincolns (Hardcover)

In her first novel for young people, Gayle Brandeis has created a quirky and delightful heroine, Mina Edelman. It's 1966 in Downers Grove, Illinois, a nearly all-white suburb of Chicago, and Mina is convinced that she and her family are reincarnations of the Lincolns. When the novel opens, her main worries are how to prevent her father from being assassinated, her mother from going crazy (like Mary Todd Lincoln), and herself--a reincarnation of Willie Lincoln, or so she likes to imagine--from dying at age 12.

But when her dad, who owns Honest ABE's furniture store, begins taking her to civil rights marches led by Martin Luther King, their life begins to change in very real ways. Mina and her dad Al participate in protests designed to pressure the Chicago political establishment to support open housing--the abolition of housing segregation. When her dad meets Carla, a black activist at one of the meetings, they take Mina and Carla's son to pose as an interracial family at various real estate offices around Chicago, demonstrating the unspoken but very real restrictions that existed. Mina's father is exhilarated by his experiences, and is so concerned with oppressing blacks that he fires their cleaning lady--"I don't want to oppress you anymore," he says, completely oblivious to the fact that the woman needs the income to pay her rent. "You need a job that doesn't subjugate you," he tells her, convinced he has done the right thing.

But when Al brings his battle for civil rights to Downers Grove, bringing Carla's son to live with them for the summer and holding meetings for the Chicago Freedom Movement in his furniture store, it splits the family apart. Will Mina's family survive to create a better future for themselves and their community?

Although this book clearly deals with many serious events, both real (such as Martin Luther King's getting hit in the head by a rock during a Chicago demonstration) and fictional (strife in Mina's family), tweens will enjoy Mina's eccentric voice in this novel, which was originally written by Brandeis for adults but later reworked for a young adult audience. This is also a coming-of-age novel, which deals with some of Mina's discomfort at her changing body in a lighthearted and humorous way that should appeal to tweens and teens alike.

I particularly liked the fact that Brandeis deals in this book with two topics not often explored in books for young people--the cooperation between Jews and blacks in the civil rights movement, and also King's work in the North, which is not nearly as well known and taught in school as his civil rights work in the South.

Highly recommended for ages 10 and up. Also, an excellent choice for school or public libraries.

5.0 out of 5 stars What if your dad was Abraham Lincoln?, September 8, 2010

By 

Susan VanHecke "www.susanvanhecke.com" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Life with the Lincolns (Hardcover)

Witty, warm, and thought-provoking, Brandeis' debut novel for young readers is a satisfying read with a totally unique premise, the main character's belief that she and her family members are the Lincolns reincarnated. Two big thumbs-up for middle-graders.