The website Answers.com authoritatively states 16,000 books have been written about the 16th president.

And after eyeing the 34-foot-tall tower of 6,800 books on Abraham Lincoln recently installed at Ford's Theatre Center for Education and Leadership, who wants to quibble?

Two of the best of the latest crop are William C. Harris' "Lincoln and the Border States: Preserving the Union" and Elizabeth D. Leonard's "Lincoln's Forgotten Ally: Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt of Kentucky."

That's according to Gettysburg College and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, which just selected those two books from among 116 contenders for the 2012 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize.

The award committee, in a press release, said, "Harris covers Lincoln's often desperate efforts to keep the border states within the Union during the first months of the Civil War, with a focus on ... Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. Harris's study is thorough and well researched, and emphasizes Lincoln's careful moderation in dealing with an issue that he himself believed was crucial to the survival of the country. Harris clearly develops the various aspects of loyalty in the three states under examination, and illuminates Lincoln's emerging management style."

"Leonard provides a thorough biography of a man who played a role in four presidential administrations, Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt of Kentucky ... and provides a new perspective on emancipation in Kentucky, as evidenced by Holt himself, a slave-owner, who later supported emancipation. The discussion of Holt's role as judge advocate general in the Lincoln administration provides information about Lincoln's wartime efforts regarding emancipation and civil liberties."

"Both tell important stories in wonderfully readable prose, while deepening our understanding of Lincoln and the Civil War era," Gilder Lehrman Institute President James G. Basker said. "These are both 'must reads' for anyone who cares about the complex political challenges Lincoln and his government faced during the worst crisis in our country's history."

• Sure, Presidents' Day is all about Lincoln and that other icon, George Washington. But being noble fellows, they probably wouldn't mind sharing the spotlight with fellow Presidents James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.

Richard Brookhiser, author of "James Madison," wrote about the first president previously, in "George Washington on Leadership," but now has turned his pen to the fourth.

Fellow Founding Father Madison had close ties with Washington, writing both his inaugural and farewell speeches. And Madison's wife, the popular Dolley, even saved Washington's portrait from the Brits who burned the White House in 1814. Surely, he's earned some attention here.

While much is often made of Madison's small physical stature, Brookhiser shows the big role he had in writing the Constitution, the Federalist Papers and the Bill of Rights.

Brookhiser singles him out as the last president to personally led troops into battle during the War of 1812, which is now enjoying bicentennial attention. That combat scene, at the very start of the book, captivates the reader/listener, as Lancaster's own Norman Dietz does it full justice in his narration of a10-hour unabridged recording of Brookhiser's book for Tantor Media.

• Thanks to the PBS miniseries and David McCullough's biography, both titled "John Adams," many Americans are aware of the strained relations between the two Founder "frenemies."

"Worst of Friends: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and the True Story of an American Feud" is an attempt to communicate that complicated relationship to young children.

The picture book, written by Suzanne Tripp Jurmain and illustrated by Larry Day, succeeds by contrasting their physical traits, personalities, lifestyles and political ideas of the second president and his vice president, who ran against him and won, casting a near lifelong pall on their earlier amity.

The illustrations are comical enough and the issues simplified enough to allow the intended readers to relate to ever-changing schoolyard alliances.

Best of all, as even amateur historians know, there's a happy ending to this story.

John tells Tom in a letter, "you ... had as good a right to your opinion as I had to mine." Tom realizes "people could have different ideas and still be friends."

While it's intended for ages 5-8, maybe it should be required reading for today's executive and legislative branches of government.

Contact Sunday News Books Editor Jo-Ann Greene at jgreene@lnpnews.com.