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AMERICA GIVES THANKS

Name: AMERICA GIVES THANKS
Author: Bob McKinnon
ISBN: 9780593658819

by Bob McKinnon ; illustrated by Thai My Phuong ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 5, 2025

A feel-good but vague attempt at cultivating an appreciation for U.S. history.

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The titular character of America’s Dreaming (2024) returns for a class trip to the nation’s capital.

Amid the other students’ grousing (“My dad says all they do in Washington is fight”), America’s teacher Mr. Downs urges the youngster to find examples of how complaints have had positive effects in history. As the children visit typical landmarks—the Supreme Court, the Lincoln Memorial (“where people often come to complain together”)—America hears whispers of wisdom from historical figures such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Lessons about making change for the better reverberate with America, who later shares lunch with a classmate who didn’t bring one. While the overall tone is uplifting, McKinnon’s stiff text often relies on stilted turns of phrase (“We should always stand with anybody who stands right”). Discussions of significant figures and eras are oversimplified; readers will need background knowledge on, for instance, segregation in order to understand the impact of Marian Anderson’s 1939 performance on the Lincoln Memorial steps, and those unfamiliar with Roosevelt likely won’t be moved by his words on “the test of progress.” Nor does the author’s note provide further context. Phuong’s illustrations set a breezy tone with a muted earth-toned palette, depicting historical figures in ghostly blue. America’s class is diverse, and Mr. Downs is light-skinned; America isn’t portrayed (scenes are instead presented from the protagonist’s point of view).

A feel-good but vague attempt at cultivating an appreciation for U.S. history. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025

ISBN: 9780593658819

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Penguin Workshop

Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORY

- BOOK REVIEW
AMERICA'S DREAMING
by Bob McKinnon ; illustrated by Thai My Phuong

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STANDING ON HER SHOULDERS

by Monica Clark-Robinson ; illustrated by Laura Freeman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 2, 2021

Uplifting.

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Clark-Robinson celebrates the ways in which women have opened doors for the girls and women coming after them.

Two women, one elderly and one younger, sit a girl down with tea and photographs to tell her stories of how “our mothers and all those who’ve gone before, / paved a freer path and opened a wider door.” The walls of this Black family’s home are covered in framed photographs of diverse historical and contemporary women who made their marks in the worlds of art, sports, politics, and more. As the women encourage the girl to “speak [the] names” of those who came before and recognize that they stand on the shoulders of those women, the art transitions from their home to full spreads showing the heroes in action. Toward the end, as the text repeats praise for the women leaders, the art shows the family framing a photograph of themselves and hanging it on the wall, placing them in the line of strong women as the question is posed to the girl: “Who will stand on YOURS?” Many of the icons in the images will be recognizable to informed readers, overlaying the text’s general message onto specific examples of excellence. Backmatter provides a sentence introducing each figure beneath her portrait, offering an opportunity for readers to “speak their names.” Though perhaps overly hopeful in its depiction of women’s unity across racial lines, this book achieves the effect of an intergenerational embrace. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-16-inch double-page spreads viewed at 22.2% of actual size.)

Uplifting. (author’s note, illustrator’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-338-35800-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic

Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S FAMILY | CHILDREN'S HISTORY

- BOOK REVIEW
LET THE CHILDREN MARCH
by Monica Clark-Robinson ; illustrated by Frank Morrison

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I AM ABRAHAM LINCOLN

From the Ordinary People Change the World series

by Brad Meltzer ; illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 14, 2014

Successful neither as biography nor sermon.

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Our 16th president is presented as an activist for human and civil rights.

Lincoln resembles a doll with an oversized head as he strides through a first-person narrative that stretches the limits of credulity and usefulness. From childhood, Abe, bearded and sporting a stovepipe hat, loves to read, write and look out for animals. He stands up to bullies, noting that “the hardest fights don’t reveal a winner—but they do reveal character.” He sees slaves, and the sight haunts him. When the Civil War begins, he calls it a struggle to end slavery. Not accurate. The text further calls the Gettysburg ceremonies a “big event” designed to “reenergize” Union supporters and states that the Emancipation Proclamation “freed all those people.” Not accurate. The account concludes with a homily to “speak louder then you’ve ever spoken before,” as Lincoln holds the Proclamation in his hands. Eliopoulos’ comic-style digital art uses speech bubbles for conversational asides. A double-page spread depicts Lincoln, Confederate soldiers, Union soldiers, white folk and African-American folk walking arm in arm: an anachronistic reference to civil rights–era protest marches? An unsourced quotation from Lincoln may not actually be Lincoln’s words.

Successful neither as biography nor sermon. (photographs, archival illustration) (Picture book. 4-7)