#22-Abraham Lincoln Comes Home

Abraham Lincoln Comes Home

Written by Robert Burleigh

Illustrated by Wendell Minor

Henry Holt and Company, 2008

30 Pages

Historical Fiction

     This is the story of Luke, a young boy who goes with his father to the local train tracks to watch Lincoln's funeral train pass by. Luke and his farther make the trip in the middle of the night in order to see the train carrying Lincoln's body. Others are gathered at the tracks and are holding torches. The train is headed to Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln's home.

     Minor uses gouache watercolor to create the vibrant illustrations. Minor does a great job of capturing the dark night using dark blues. As Luke and his father get closer and closer to the crowd that is gathered around the tracks, the dark blue night is engulfed in orange flame. As the train approaches the pages turn from a background composed mainly of dark blue, to being enveloped in bright orange. Minor does a great job of portraying what it must have been like to see the train pass by late at night while people held torches. Minor also does a great job of capturing the details of the train. The reader feels like they are actually up close to the train as it passes by.

     This is a great book to explain how upset the nation was after Lincoln's assassination. The end of the book shows the actual path that the train took as it made its 13 day journey to Springfield, Illinois. The book also contains some interesting facts about Lincoln's funeral train. After reading the book, students could draw out the journey that Lincoln's train took. Students could also do a writing assignment about how they would have felt if they had been alive during this time and if they had been in Luke's place watching the train pass by.