Love notes to all 50 states, in alphabetical order.
If the natural, architectural, or cultural features that Aronson picks as similes and metaphors for the captions accompanying each of her appealingly cozy painted scenes offer few surprises, the diverse figures posing together on each spread effectively reflect the fact that our country’s population makes up one thoroughly multiracial, multicultural tapestry. The narrative likewise binds the illustrations into a litany of togetherness; all begin with the same four words and are constructed on the same pattern: “Our love is like Alabama,” she writes, “sweet as molasses, soulful as / the tunes of Muscle Shoals.” “Our love is like Alaska, / lighting up each other’s lives / like the magical Northern Lights.” Readers reaching the end may wonder what and where the “herds that / grace the Grand Tetons” of Wyoming are, since the only animals visible in the picture are a bear and two cubs. Specific references to Indigenous Americans are limited to just two mentions in the closing notes. Still, Aronson’s patent sincerity may well prompt young audiences to join her in seeing that our differences can unite, rather than divide, us.
A heartfelt national portrait.
(map) (Informational picture book. 6-8)