Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek: A Tall, Thin Tale (Introducing His Forgotten Frontier Friend), Deborah Hopkinson and Joan Hendrix

Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek is a historical fiction picture book, but it is also a book like I have never read before.  As you are reading it is the author telling the story, like they are talking to you and reading the story.  As she reads she decides to change it up and change the outcome of the story, like first they walk across the log then she changes it and decides that they are going to crawl across the log.  In the first two pages she sets the stage of the story like characters, setting, and time.  During the book Abe and his friend Austin cross a dangerous river where Abe almost dies but Austin saves us. On the last page of the book it gives the moral of the story which is: What we do matters, even if we do not make the history books.

After doing a read aloud of this book I would have my students choose a historical figure and write their own creative adventure story.  A historical figure could be someone like Rosa Parks, George Washington, Babe Ruth or another figure that I approve to make sure they are learning some sort of history.  Then they would have to do a little research to get background information about the person.  Now it is there time to be creative and write an adventure story like the one Abe went on except with their historical figure.  I would also like them to have a moral of their story like the one in Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek.  After they finish writing they can draw a picture and we can scan them into their blogs.