Graphic Novel: The Hammer and The Anvil by Dwight Jon Zimmerman

The Hammer and The Anvil: Fredrick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the End of Slavery in America by Dwight Jon Zimmerman and illustrated by Wayne Vansant is a graphic novel biography of how Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln helped end slavery.

I love graphic novels as they are perfect for teens who don't really enjoy reading but are forced to read by their crazy book lady mothers (meaning my son and myself). There are many good graphic novels available about many different topics.

The book switches back and forth from Douglass's and Lincoln's stories, and Vansant does this switch well by showing Lincoln's story in sepia tones and Douglass's story in grey tones. I learned new things about our nation's history by reading this book and feel it would work well in a classroom environment by bringing up many discussion points and topics for further research.

I am thankful for these two men and the courage they had to fight evil in a time when so many were fine with the status quo. I would love to be in heaven some day and sit in on a conversation with Lincoln, Douglass, and Martin Luther King JR.

This book was published in 2012 and annoyingly is already out of print. Boo, Hiss. You can still find it at a reasonable price on line, but it being out of print means that classrooms won't be able to get it. I sincerely hope this book gets reprinted at some point.

Read to a child today so that may know and understand the history of our nation.