Lincoln Tells a Joke: How Laughter Saved the President (and the Country)

 Lincoln Tells a Joke: How Laughter Saved the President (and the Country)

• author:  Kathllen Krull  http://www.kathleenkrull.com/  &  Paul Brewer  http://www.paulbrewer.com/
• illustrator:  Stacy Innerst  http://www.stacyinnerst.com/stacyinnerst.com/Home.html
• medium:  acrylic on illustration board

•  year of publication:  2010
• publication city: Boston
• publisher:  Harcourt Children's Books
• ISBN:  978-0-15-206639-0

Annotation:  A biographical portrait of the sixteenth U.S. President emphasizing Lincoln’s use of humor to get through good times and bad, for the benefit of himself, his friends, and the entire count.

Personal Thoughts:  This is a different Lincoln biography.  Like other picture books on the same subject, Lincoln Tells a Joke covers his birth in a log cabin, his marriage to Mary Todd, and his rise to presidency and the abolishment of slavery.  Where this book differs from the rest of the pack is in its emphasis on Lincoln’s reliance on humor to get through tough and dismal periods.  The book is filled with actual witticisms by Lincoln.  An author’s note explains the jokes were collected by his admirers, post mortem and caught through eyewitness accounts, written records and second-hand, third –hand and further removed accounts.  Some of the humor is great!  When criticizing a lawyer Lincoln disliked, he said “That man can pack the most words into the least ideas of any man I know.”  Funny stuff.  However, some of the jokes are little short on laughs, for my tastes.  Lincoln describing his lack of combat in the army stated that he survived “a good many bloody battles – with mosquitoes.”  Ahem.  I guess that was funnier in the 1800s. 

I was surprised to hear some of the famous lines Lincoln came up with, not knowing he was the author.  “It’s a great day for the race,” he said.  “What race?” his neighbor questioned.  “The human race,” Lincoln answered.  The first time I heard that joke was in a David Mamet movie.  To think the playwright Mamet borrowed from Lincoln is funny in itself.  The artwork is best described as cute.  It’s jovial and reflects what’s being presented on the page.   This is a decent picturebook that has chosen to combine a famous subject and a popular theme: Abraham Lincoln and using humor to win hearts.  How can you go wrong with that?