Self-help ✦ Penny’s Take 📱 Kindle
An Unlikely Friendship
Ann Rinaldi · 2008
72/100
👍 Worth It
This one pairs Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley in a grounded look at friendship across the color line during the Civil War. It reads simplified compared to grown-up history books, but that is exactly right for a teen reader just getting curious about the era.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: Depicts slavery's cruelty and Lincoln's assassination; historical and educational, not gratuitous, but a heads-up for sensitive younger readers. We still scored it 72; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
Faith & family safety72
Substance / usefulness75
Craft & writing70
Originality65
Evidence & accuracy68
Hype vs delivers65
Age-fit75
Human-eye read70
Penny’s verdict72
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