Gayle Brandeis' "My Life with the Lincolns," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: My Life with the Lincolns by Gayle Brandeis.

The entry begins:

My Life with the Lincolns tells the story of 12-year-old Mina Edelman who thinks her family is the Lincoln family reincarnated and it’s her job to save them from their fate. The novel is set in 1966 Chicago, when Martin Luther King, Jr. brings the civil rights movement north to focus on housing discrimination. Mina and her dad get involved in the movement, with consequences for the entire family.

Since Mina is at the center of the story, she needs to be played by a young actor who can exude a blend of innocence and intelligence, curiosity and anxiety. I think Christina Robinson, who plays the step daughter on Dexter, would be a great choice. I can easily see Kiernan Shipka, who plays Sally Draper on Mad Men, as Mina’s younger sister Tabby (maybe because Tabby, like Sally Draper, has a lisp). I can also imagine...[read on]

Gayle Brandeis is the author of Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write (HarperOne), Dictionary Poems (Pudding House Publications), the novels The Book of Dead Birds (HarperCollins), which won Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether Prize for Fiction in Support of a Literature of Social Change, Self Storage (Ballantine), and Delta Girls (Ballantine).

My Life with the Lincolns (Holt) is her first novel for young readers.

The Page 69 Test: Self Storage.

My Book, The Movie: Self Storage.

The Page 69 Test: Delta Girls.

My Book, The Movie: My Life with the Lincolns.

--Marshal Zeringue