Postcards to Father Abraham

by Catherine Lewis

Having lost her leg to cancer, sixteenyearold Meghan is upset with her life and her inability to run the way she once did, yet realizing that no one around her could understand her pain, she begins to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689828527
• ISBN13: 9780689828522
• Release Date: February 2000
• Publisher: Atheneum Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.3" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

Coping With Loss

Meghan is full of rage. First her mother died. It was hard and it turned her father into a very strict man who doesn't seem to have sympathy for his three children anymore. He pushed Meghan's adored older brother Killian into going to Vietnam, which destroyed Killian. He pushed Meghan to take a running scholarship at a prestigious boarding school, saying it would help her future. The last straw is when Meghan loses one of her legs to cancer. Running is the one thing in her life that she loves and that calms her when she needs it. Now she is stuck in a hospital bed, trying to recover from her surgery and not wanting to use the prosthetic leg that will eventually help her to walk again. Meghan spends her time in the hospital reflecting on her life, visiting with her younger sister, thinking about her brother and becoming angrier and angrier with her father for all of the things she thinks he has ruined in her life. She also writes notes to her idol, Abraham Lincoln, who lived in her Illinois town and is a huge part of the history there. Will writing these notes help her to come to terms with herself and her life? I liked learning about Meghan's life little by little and seeing what the events were leading up to her being in the hospital in the state of mind she was in. I also liked the history of Lincoln woven into this story, and the history of Vietnam also playing a part in the book. I didn't like that Meghan was so angry at her father that he never had a chance to explain himself or his point of view.

Short chapters = fast pace

Her brother is shell-shocked from his tour of duty in Vietnam. She doesn't get along with her banker father. Her sister, a math genius, struggles to make sense of it all. She has been expelled from school. Her mother is dead. She is lying in a hospital, recovering from the cancer that stole her runner's legs. And in an O. Henry moment, her estranged best friend sends her a pair of running shoes.As Meghan recovers from her amputation, she finds connections to Abraham Lincoln through cornfields, feet, war, writing, and tragedy. Interesting and little-known facts about Lincoln surface naturally in the narrative. Desperate for a father figure, bitter over her tragedies, and unable to express herself to her therapist, Meghan writes postcards to the past president to release her fury and confusion. She feels a strong bond between Lincoln's suffering and her own, and wonders if she too can rise above it all. The chapters that reveal Meghan's late 60's past and 1972 present are short but never spartan. Illinois cornfields are painted with vibrant and succinct detail; the joy of running is portrayed beautifully, making this an excellent choice for female athletes. Chapters read like diary entries, and move fluidly from past to present in even strides. Not all loose ends are tied up, but by the end it is clear the Meghan is on the road to emotional and physical recovery, taking small steps each day. A bibliography would have been a welcome addition to this book. Readers who want to know more about Lincoln after this novel should be directed to Abraham Lincoln: A Writer's Life: by Harold Holzer for insights into Lincoln as a writer, and Russell Freedman's Lincoln: A Photobiography for more details about the tragic figure of Lincoln.

The Best book I have read in a long time.

This is the best book i have read in a long time. 16- year- old Meghan is angry with the world. She is angry at her father(whom she calls THE BANKER) because he sent her brother Killian, off to fight in the Korean War, agnst Killian's will. The Korean War has ruined Killian's way of thinking. She is angry at Dr. Take-more, and Dr. Take-less, for taking away her leg. She is mangry at the nuns in her old school for expelling her. She is angry at her day nurse for having somebody ele's baby. She is anry at Sam for trying to help her learn to run again. Throughout her hard times, she turnes to her hero, Abraham Lincon who has been dead for a while. Throughout the book she writes postcards to her her hero on anything she can find. This compelling novel should be on the bookshelf of all teens.

An involving, compelling story.

Ages 12 and older will find this an involving story telling of an ex-runner's struggle with the removal of her leg due to cancer. Her anger and struggle to overcome her disability take the form of letters written to a past idol, Abe Lincoln, which help her come to grips with her life.

A thoughtful book about loss, love, and hope.

You can only imagine how Meghan feels. A tremendous athlete-track and field star-she finds out she has cancer and has her leg amputated. As if this loss isn't enough to contend with, Meghan is also in mourning for the loss of her mother, who died when she was younger, and for her brother, Killian, who was sent off to fight in Viet Nam and came back from the war a broken man. Meghan has a bad attitude. She's angry at the world, and after a while, even those who love her are pretty sick of her temper tantrums. It's clear that her father loves her, but doesn't understand her, her sister loves her, but doesn't know how to help her, and her best friend loves her, but Meghan won't have anything to do with her. The person that Meghan does reach out to is Abraham Lincoln. Yep. That Abraham Lincoln. The 16th president of the United States. She sends him a series of postcards. What may seem a weird premise turns out to be a wonderful addition to the plot as Meghan looks to Lincoln, whose life was pretty miserable, as a source of comfort, inspiration, and ultimately strength to start over. I don't want to give too much of the book away other than to say that this book is incredibly rich with meaning. While the chapters are short and the prose sparse, the emotional effect is powerful. It's a great read.