This book was very interesting for me because it was a story about an event that happen in Abraham Lincoln’s life that not very many people knew about, this also became the “meanest thing he has ever done”. This book is about how Lincoln got himself into trouble. Abraham Lincoln was a Lawyer and his coworker Shields was a lawyer too, they were often known as opposites of one another. Shields was very arrogant and serious, and Lincoln was not. One day Shields had wrote an article and Lincoln’s reply was a “Aunt Rebecca” letter, which at the time no one knew that it was Lincoln and soon after more letters started to show up from other citizens. Lincoln knew he had to own up to his mistake and that’s when Shields called Lincoln to a Duel. They were able to solve this matter without a duel and this became Lincoln’s meanest things he’s ever done in his life. I did not know this about Lincoln, and thought that even if this was not true, it was still in a way funny because what he did was “mean” and that was far from mean, maybe wrong but Abraham Lincoln was a very good guy and never did anything mean in his life. ( )

This book tells the story of a duel that Abraham Lincoln had before he became the president. Many people have never heard of this story because Abraham was ashamed of the duel. He called it the meanest thing that he had ever done. The significance of the story was that through this “almost- duel” Lincoln became the honest person that everyone knew him to be.
Abraham was a regular man, he made mistakes and lived a regular human life. He was smart, funny, and clever. The book was more of a story about a specific time in Lincoln’s life rather than an overall story of Lincoln’s life. It did not resemble the other biographies that I have read and was not as interesting as the others. There was no real timeline of Lincoln’s life because it was mainly based on his “almost duel”. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. The style the author chose to write in was very entertaining and I though it help make the story better. This biography was slightly different than most because it didn’t focus on a broad range of topics. It focused on a short part of Lincoln’s life that I did not know about. I really enjoyed this book. ( )

Abraham Lincoln's Dueling Words is a delightfully illustrated tale about a lesser known incident in Lincoln's life as a barrister. In response to tax changes that would affect the poorer folk rather harshly, Lincoln wrote a letter to the newspaper under the name 'Aunt Rebecca’, which also called out rival James Shields. Two other 'Aunt Rebecca’ letters turned up, written by people other than Lincoln.

These letters steamed Shields up, and he demanded to know who was behind it. He then challenged Lincoln to a duel. In an attempt to protect both people, and force it to be called off, Lincoln chose swords, and set very clear guidelines that would favour his height and reach. This gives the seconds the opportunity to step in and defuse things, satisfying the honour of both. At the end, there's a section explaining more historical facts regarding the events surrounding Lincoln's duel.

With brilliant illustrations and clear language, Bowman and Schindler bring to life this little known tale, making Lincoln into more a person than a symbol of ideal. He's got a playful sense of humour, and bit of an impetuous nature. It was neat to see Lincoln in a trickster light! My cubs all enjoyed reading this book!

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Myrick Marketing for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. ( )