Just in Time, Abraham Lincoln
With the publication of this picture book, Polacco has written�along with Pink and Say (1994) and January�s Sparrow (2009)�a Civil War trilogy of sorts for young elementary-school readers. This time around, the author frames a portrayal of battle and loss at Antietam within a tale of time travel. Michael and Derek are video game�loving boys who are a bit skeptical of their grandmother�s effort to introduce them to history. But when Grandmother�s museum-director friend allows the boys to dress up as Union soldiers, complete with guns, the pair warms to learning about the important fight that inspired Lincoln to write the Emancipation Proclamation. Is the adventure they have only a very true-to-life reenactment? Or were the two actually transported to the past by the mysterious director? Either way, they gain a real appreciation for the war�s human cost. Polacco�s easily recognizable style, with its loose pencil-and-marker draftsmanship, isn�t always the perfect match for the serious tone of her prose, but she is certainly to be lauded for this unique effort to bring history alive. Grades 2-4. --Karen Cruze