America

My Land, Your Land, Our Land

By W. Nikola-Lisa
Lee & Low Books, $15.95

ISBN 1880000377


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Happy Birthday, Dear United States


How do we explain to children the feeling we have for our country? Even more, how do we explain our country? It's hard to do in words. W. Nikola-Lisa has used very few of them in "America: My Land, Your Land, Our Land," yet they express well the variety and vitality in our landscape, our climate and our population. As he says in a note at the back, this book is essentially "a book of opposites," that "celebrates the joys and beauty of our nation, but also highlights the underlying tensions found in American society."

Nikola-Lisa's minimal text is illustrated by 14 different artists, themselves a rich sampling from America's diverse nationalities -- black, white, Hispanic, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, Native American, Philippine. All are notable children's book illustrators. In spite of their different styles and media, each pictures one or more children in relationship to the land. There are kids camping, kids on the beach, building snow men, picking grapes, riding through swamps.

In the end we agree with Nikola-Lisa that it's "America, the Beautiful!" but we're not sure whether it's the land or the children. Either way, sharing this book with a child is a wonderful way to celebrate the Fourth of July. Happy birthday, dear United States!

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