The Gettysburg Address

McCurdy creates powerful, large-scale black-and-white illustrations like those in his Giants in the Land to match Abraham Lincoln's classic speech in this handsome volume. On oversize pages, scenes of Lincoln delivering the address at the Gettysburg battlefield alternate with visualizations of the imagery contained in it. For example, a line of people carrying building tools marches across the pages as Lincoln proclaims that ``it is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work.'' As Lincoln concludes, resolving that ``government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,'' the cheering crowd gazes out from the page into the future-a fitting conclusion to an American classic made new again. All ages. (Sept.)