Bibliography: Krull, Katherine and Paul Brewer. LINCOLN TELLS A JOKE (HOW LAUGHTER SAVED THE PRESIDENT AND THE COUNTRY). Illustrated by Stacy Innerst. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2010. Print

ISBN: 9780152066390

Lincoln Tells a Joke: How Laughter Saved the President (and the country) is an entertaining biography of Abraham Lincoln as told by Kathleen Krull and Paul Brewer .  This biography focuses on how Lincoln used his unusual sense of humor to cope with some of the more difficult aspects of his life and presidency.  By all accounts Lincoln’s life was less than ideal.  He was born in a log cabin with a dirt floor and beds of cornhusks. “Life on the frontier – first in Kentucky, then in Indiana – was almost all work. Backbreaking work.”  Yet he managed to find the time to read jokes to his friends on Sundays.  Accordingly, throughout his life Lincoln learned to balanced difficult times with his sense of humor.  From joking about his less than striking looks to lighting the mood at his cabinet meetings during the civil war by reading from a joke book, this biography shines a light on one of the less known characteristics of one of our most famous presidents.   

Critical Summary:

Throughout Lincoln Tells a Joke: How Laughter Saved the President (and the country) Kathleen Krull and Paul Brewer use some fairly commonly known facts about President Lincoln to anchor their account of Lincoln’s life.  He was born in a log cabin; he was fascinated by words and loved to read but couldn't attend school; he became the 16th President of the United States; and he presided over the Civil War.   These well known facts allow the authors to direct your attention to his sense of humor – what made his sense of humor so distinctive and how it helped him to persevere during some of the most difficult times of his life.  Consequently, many jokes and puns attributed to Lincoln himself are cleverly slipped into the book to create a chuckle in the midst of a social studies lesson.  “Lincoln served three months in the military when he was twenty-three.  He would joke that he survived ‘a good many bloody battles – with mosquitos’.”  Thus, this biography is entertaining and comical. 

Furthermore, there are whimsical illustrations that grab the interest of the reader and keep them tuned in.  One of the illustrations that I enjoyed the most depicts the Lincoln Memorial.  Except in Stacy Innerst’s illustration, Lincoln is holding a copy of Quinn’s Jests, which is the joke book that he would read to his friends on Sundays when he was a boy.  This, like many other illustrations, compliments the text.  The Lincoln Memorial was erected to immortalize one of our greatest presidents but rather than simply replicating the Lincoln Memorial, Innerst chose to emphasize Lincoln’s love of jokes by featuring his favorite childhood joke book as part of one of our most recognizable national monuments.   

The simplicity of this biography encourages our curiosity and wonder about the private Abraham Lincoln; the one that was only truly known by his close friends and family.  Krull and Brewer tell the story in normal personal language without using a lot of formal words and phrases. The reader feels as if he is just listening to them tell the story. 

This biography takes the reader through Lincoln's life.  It is organized in chronological order beginning with Lincoln’s birth in the log cabin to his untimely assassination, focusing only upon key events in his life.  Although it does not have reference aides such as a table of contents or an index; each new phase of his life is introduced by a concise phrase emphasized by large bold print.  A reader could use these phrases to access information like you would a table of contents. 

At the end of the biography, the authors provide a bibliography of sources. Although the facts such as the place of his birth, the death of his mother and sister and his brief military service are historically accurate, an issue of authenticity arises with the jokes attributed to Lincoln throughout the book. The authors’ note states: "Lincoln's jokes in this book are from collections complied by a variety of people, often after his death. Some of his clever remarks were passed on by eyewitnesses; some are second-hand, third-hand, or further removed." Even though this biography is written by reputable authors and the titles of some of the sources for this biography weigh in favor of supporting the accuracy of these quotes, this particular declaration by the authors left me with a sense of believe it or not.  Still, whether the quotes are Lincoln's words or not, it does not diminish the fact that this is a Lincoln that readers don't often see.

Activities:

Social Studies: Student can create a timeline or collage of Lincoln’s life.  K-2 student can create this project on a cut out of Lincoln’s famous stovepipe hat.  Older students can create this project on an image of Lincoln using www.thinglink.com They can link video clips and websites such as www.lincolnbicentennial.gov/lincolns-life/words-and-speeches to their image in addition to the information that they share from this book.    

Memory writing: Read the book aloud with your students and then have them freewrite about a difficult time in their lives and how humor could have or did help them get through it.

Use the link www.lincolnbicentennial.gov/lincolns-life/words-and-speeches to read Lincoln’s speeches.

Recommended books by Kathleen Krull:

• What Was the Boston Tea Party?
• Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez
• Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Woman

Reviews:

Krull is an expert at teasing out the fun, quirky sides of her subjects and sharing them in a way that is both genuine and engaging. This take on Lincoln is no exception. He is portrayed as an accessible, endearing, and sympathetic figure, not just another president. Children will be drawn in by the straightforward prose, and librarians will enjoy sharing the book aloud. Innerst's colorful and unconventional acrylic illustrations cover the entire page and are the perfect complement to both the text and the subject matter, making this a standout biography.—Jody Kopple, Shady Hill School, Cambridge, MA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. (Excerpt from School Library Journal, Starred Review, 2010)



Laughter is not only good medicine. It can also be a political tool, human motivator, and saving grace, as the authors show in this upbeat overview of Lincoln’s life. Moving through the sixteenth president’s many challenges, from family deaths to lost elections to fighting slavery, the text emphasizes how Lincoln coped with a joke on his tongue and a smile on his lips. Innerst’s acrylic artwork feels homey and humorous, very much in the style of his previous work with Krull, M is for Music (2003), and while not every word or picture is necessarily a hoot and a holler, they do present a positive portrait that humanizes the lionized man for whom it was “a love of laughter that kept him going.” -Andrew Medlar (Excerpt from Booklist, 2010)