Paperback 8 x 8 picture book
24 pages
Zonderkidz, 2015
ISBN 978-0-310-73485-7
SRP $4.99
Ages 4-8
Written by Mike Berenstain

🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

I try to review only books I can wholeheartedly recommend. I generally purchase the books I review, and I nearly always read them through before buying, although this time I didn’t. I prefer recommending the very best books rather than pointing out the flaws in others.

This little book celebrating the birthday of the USA has a lot to recommend it, so let’s start there.

The Berenstain Bears have been around since 1962, created by Stan and Jan Berenstain. Zonderkidz began publishing faith-based Berenstain books six or seven years ago. Obviously, a brand with that much staying power has a big fan base!

Here’s what I like about this book.

In God Bless Our County, the Bear children get a simple history lesson before they start getting ready for the big Fourth of July parade. They hear about settlers who didn’t want to be ruled by a faraway king, who created a new country with new ideas, and wrote their decision on a famous paper that they signed on July 4. The faraway king sent soldiers to take his country back, and a terrible war broke out, with the settlers winning in the end. The new country became a place where people from all over the world could come to be truly free.

Most of the rest of the book turns to the big parade, with marching bands, flags, decorated bikes, fire engines, antique cars, tractors, horse-drawn wagons, floats, Bear Scout troops, and cheerleaders. If you’re partial to parades at all—and I am (our family created and helped produce the annual “Hazelcrest Lane 3rd of July Sidewalk Parade” for ten years)—this part of the book is a lot of fun!

When evening comes, it’s time for the fireworks. While they watch, the Bear family thanks God “for a land that’s free.”

Inside the back cover, you’ll find questions and activity suggestions for families. The book also includes a special insert with 16 stickers taken from the illustrations.

Now, here’s what I question:

First, near the end of the history lesson, Papa Bear says, “We believe that it was God’s will that our new country came to be.” (That’s not quite the same as saying it WAS God’s will . . . but I’m not sure children will make the distinction, and I’m not sure how we can know whether it was or it wasn’t.)

Second, after the Bear children hear that people from all over have come to America to be free, Mama Bear adds, “As the Bible says, ‘He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.'” It’s a quote from Moses’ instructions to the Israelites shortly before they entered the Promised Land, but that’s not noted anywhere. Unless parents and kids know otherwise, they could get the impression that the verse specifically applies to America.

Parents might want to reword or avoid these two brief places in the text or be sure to discuss them with children old enough to read the book themselves.

Otherwise, as an introduction to American history for young children and helping them be thankful for our freedoms, God Bless Our Country will make a good addition to your family’s library.

DIANE

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