Where Are You Going, Baby Lincoln? by Kate Dicamillo

Ebook 96 pages

Published August 2, 2016 by Candlewick Press

Rating 4/5

I was clueless when I first read this book. I always thought that the main character here is a baby, at least a boy aged around 5 or more. But then, what I got was someone older whose name is Baby Lincoln. As I saw the cover of the book, I came to understand that I was wrong. Baby is not always a baby 👶, right? Well, actually it's not her real name. It's just her older sister Eugenia has nicknamed her that way. Lucille Abigail Eleanor Lincoln is her real name.

Since her sister loves her too much that she calls her Baby 🙄😊 For all Lucille's life, she has been under her sister's care. Whatever she does, she consults it with her sister. One day, Lucille dreams to see stars falling from the sky. As soon as she wakes up, she decides something that she doesn't want to consult it with her sister. She wants to have a necessary journey. What's that? Even Lucille cannot answer the question. For all she knows is just she needs to have the important journey.

She decides to go by train to the farthest destination as she can afford. Fluxom. Bringing her suitcase, Lucille is looking forward to her journey. On the train, she meets some interesting passengers she later makes friends with. First, she encounters a man with fur hat who introduced her with comics. Euginia always says that reading comics is just a waste of time. Then, her seatmate in the train is Sheila, the jellybean girl. And the most interesting one is George, a boy who travels alone to meet his aunt Gertrude.

As soon as Lucille gets closer to her destination, she feels something missing. Some questions pop up in her mind, too. How is Eugenia? What should I do in this journey?

This story is really touching and warming everybody's heart, especially if you have a brother or sister. Perhaps, both you and your sister are really close to each other, but it doesn't mean you want to do whatever your sister wants you to do. My older sister and I used to have dispute. When she went to college out of town, we sent letters to each other. When she went home for weekend, we would sit together telling stories until our lips got numb 😁😁😁 But at other times, we would have another dispute. It's been like that for all these years. And that might happen to Lucille and Euginia. And everyone who has siblings. Deep in your heart, you would miss each other as soon as you don't see each other.

The novel is beautifully illustrated by Chris Van Dusen. Some reviews stated that they read the book together with their 5-8 year old kids. I think, even if you read the story by looking at the illustration for your 5-8 year old kid/niece/ nephew, and they don't understand English, they would still feel happy with the story. Maybe I will tell the story of Baby Lincoln to my nieces. 😊😊😊