Excellent book. I highly recommend it both classroom use and for personal reading. The information about Lincoln is new and offers a refreshing and interesting look at our greatest President.

DNF at 10%. History was my favourite subject at school so I was looking forward to reading this, but oh my goodness it was like trying to decipher an SAS code. It didn't flow, it changed from one narrative to another, it literally copied and pasted texts from other books but continued to tell it's own story. It was just car crash reading for me personally. None of it made any sense and I didn't have the faintest idea what was going on. Would not recommend to anyone who is looking to find out more about Abraham or history unless you are a trained code breaker.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

The premise of the book, the love for reading sounded very interesting. However, I did not feel it through the story.

A thoroughly fascinating history of Abraham Lincoln's formative years - so much to learn and so much to inspire. I was quite moved by Lincoln's step-mother's devotion to him and her commitment to his reading and education. I was likewise inspired to learn of his law partner, Billy Herndon, and his lifetime commitment to preserving Lincoln's memory after his death. I was quite impressed by how well researched the book was and how much new material I read. I think it will be a incredible addition to the library of anyone wanting to learn more about one of our greatest Presidents.

My kids and I enjoyed to learn so many facts from this book. I Highly recommend this book to my friends and family.

Becoming Abraham Lincoln The Coming of Age of Our Greatest President by Richard Kigel will be released tomorrow by Skyhorse Publishing.

Well, dear reader, if you have some children or teenagers around maybe not in great love for history I strongly suggest you to buying a copy of this book to them as well because their life will change forever reading this book. It is a great reading for them as well.

The captivating writing-style by Richard Kigel, a real story-teller for sure! is able to keep in fact everyone, adults and children interested and fascinated by what they will read.

With the help of the echos of the past and people who realistically and directly knew Abraham Lincoln starting from his law partner and friend Billy Herndon, the book is a fascinating story plenty of nice, funny, sweet anecdotes about Lincoln and his family that will bewitch you from the beginning to the end.

This biography is dedicated at the first years of life of President Lincoln. The book interrupts the narration with the entrance in policy by Lincoln at the age of 25 and this marathon of joys and pains and sacrifices, and fights is so captivating that trust me when I can tell you that you won't never put down the book!

I am not so surprised Americans fell so fascinated by a man like Lincoln.

He experienced many important loss during his childhood, the one of the mom at just 9 years.

His life hasn't been simple but very poor at first although genuine, healthy, supported by good values and great virtues, he lived in a cabin with his family, changing constantly location in search for other works in the various States of the USA.
Surrounded by farm and wild animals he ate fruits and veggies of the land, drunk the milk of his cows, and lived connected not just with his mind but also with nature.

Wherever you will go, whatever you will become, you won't never forget your origins.

A story of big sacrifices, loss and renounces the life of Lincoln with a profound melancholic vein. He knew. Abraham Lincoln imagined what would have happened in his life, he had clear visions of a strange but sad future. He became a great and compassionate man, but also when he was little he was very cute, like when he donated a fish to a soldiers, because someone told him that people must be kind with soldiers and must help them. Growing up he was appreciated by all his friends for his lovely character and helped when he fell depressed.

When he learned to write and read he became an avid reader.
A voracious reader. He interrupted to go to school at age 15 but this boy has read an entire library of books.
For sure.
Wherever he went he read.
Also while he was eating.
Classics, new books, fascinated by the immense culture of Benjamin Franklin.

This young Lincoln is the most elegant and best example that a kid or a boy could try to emulate also during our times.

Strongly recommended.

I thank NetGalley and Skyhorse Publishing for this eBook!

Becoming Abraham Lincoln is an interesting angle, focusing on Lincoln's early years, bolstered largely by quotes from William Herndon's research shortly after the assassination. While entertaining to read, the book really doesn't add information that is unique or new to the canon of scholarship about Lincoln.

Most of the Lincoln shelf – or rather library – focuses on his politics and the Civil War. Richard Kigel’s book is entirely pre-politics – it ends at age 25 when Lincoln is elected to the Illinois legislature (on his second try). The story to that point is warm enough to reinforce Lincoln not only as the greatest president, as we know from all the other works, but as a remarkable human being, from this one.

Becoming Abraham Lincoln follows his forebears to the point of his birth, and then Lincoln and his extended family from Kentucky to Indiana and Illinois. His many relatives, friends, neighbors and acquaintances provide multiple verifications for the many wonderful stories, remarkably few of which have become legendary. Kigel addresses this strange gap directly and thoughtfully. They are stories worth knowing.

What is striking is how much everyone loved him and made him the center of attention, right from childhood. At age seven he was transcribing letters for adults. He loved to tell stories, both true and tall tales, and there was a sparkle in his eyes as he entertained. He formally gathered other children around and conducted lectures, which they loved. He had a need to laugh and making others laugh gave him satisfaction. He was a practical jokester, and a hard, conscientious worker. He delivered a boat he built to New Orleans, and walked home to Illinois.

And it must be remembered that he was not a pretty picture. At six-four and just 160 pounds, he stuck out. His pants never came within five inches of his shoes, when he had any. He had a single suspender to keep them up. His face was described as having been chopped out with an axe, and in need of planing. But he was exceptionally strong, able to press a thousand pounds, several witnesses said, to handle an axe like no one before or since, and a wrestler to reckon with.

I can’t even imagine what Lincoln might have been with a real education. His one year of schooling was preceded and supplemented by an intense love of words and books. He read voraciously, studied everything hard, and everything he came upon was a wonder to him. The knowledge he built up blew people away. It was an age when the richest man in town was said to own 30 books. All the children sat in the same classroom and were taught by someone with no formal education. Few became literate beyond signing their own names. Abe Lincoln read science and law and poetry for (obsessive) pleasure. With what little education he had plus his drive to learn, he became one of the wisest men of the age.

His life was miserable poverty until his mid-twenties. Between that and the constant presence of death in his life, it’s a wonder he could be the upbeat, positive center of the community, but he was. It wasn’t until later that depression took control, instantly, for long bleak periods. Through it all he was exceptionally honest, exceptionally sincere, and a worthy preview of the great man we rightly revere.

David Wineberg