Early biographies for children often fictionalized accounts of a person's life, and Freedman has fond memories of the ways they were written. "I grew up during the cherry-tree era of children's biography," Freedman confessed in his Newbery speech. "Recently I looked again at a Lincoln biography I read as a boy; it contains my favorite example of invented dialogue. Abe is eleven years old in this scene, and his father is bawling him out: 'Books!' said his father. 'Always books! What is all this studying going to do for you? What do you think you are going to be"' 'Why," said Abe, 'I'm going to be President.'
The Shadow of Lincoln
Ironically, Lincoln's face was to haunt Freedman during his childhood for a very different reason than the words he read in the biography. Freedman joked in his Newbery speech that he spent a great deal of his time at school in the principal's office, where a portrait of Lincoln hung on one wall.
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