Show Your Patriotism - fly the flag, wear our colors!!!!
Written: Jun 13 '02 (Updated Jun 13 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: alot of information crammed into a small text
Cons: the poems are nothing remarkable
The Bottom Line: Manages to convey simply, in a kid-friendly manner varied information about our flag and our nation's history. A great book to share with the younger members of your family.
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| jiastar's Full Review: Pam Munoz Ryan - The Flag We Love Books |
I recently purchased this title for my daughter through a scholastic book order form at school. I had a few reasons for picking it:
-- it was specially priced at $0.95
-- it dealt with historical information about our nation's flag
-- her end of year school play was also on the history of the flag
The book is broken up into 16 poems each dealing with a different aspect of the flags history and symbolism. It covers topics ranging from the first flags, the lunar landing, flying flags at half-mast, and more.
The opening poem is 8 lines long, broken up into 2 verses; the remaining poems are 4 lines in length. In each case the 2nd and 4th lines rhyme (or almost rhyme).
The poems themselves are not remarkable, no insult to the author, but they are simple to read and to understand. This makes them just right for kids.
Each poem is fully illustrated with attention to detail:
- we can see the veins in the skin of a woman sewing a flag
- we can see the "rockets' red glare" mentioned in The Star Spangled Banner
- we can see the shadows of mourners on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
- faces are full and expressive, in some cases almost photographic in nature
Additionally, each poem (with exception of the opening and ending verses) is highlighted with a text box. In this box we learn that:
- The Pledge of Allegiance was written by Francis Bellamy in 1892 and has been recited in American schools since
- the flag which inspired the Star Spangled Banner was "as wide as most two-story houses are tall"
- President Lincoln's body rode, by train, from Washington DC to Springfield, Ill.
I have to say that I was impressed with this slim book. It exposes children to a wide variety of information about our flag. And in doing so teaches them about history and patriotism.
All in all this is a great book for kids from preschool on up to 3rd grade. It gives them history in small, easily digested chunks and as such is not overwhelming. It is broken up in such a way that you could easily read just one a day as a lesson not only in our nations' past but in what it means to be patriotic.
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A citizen wears a symbol
A tiny, flag-shaped pin
As a promise for our future
And a reminder of where we've been
This book was published in 1996, but in the wake of 9/11 it takes on a new importance. For my husband(a former Marine and Gulf War veteran) and I it has become so much more of a priority to teach our girls to love their country, to be proud to be Americans.
This is the next to last poem in the book. We see not only a graphic of a pin, but a full page illustration of a woman fastening such a pin on a man's lapel. We learn that wearing a "flag-shaped pin" is just one of several ways people can express their patriotism and that just as our nation is made up of different people, different cultures these pins can represent a variety of causes.
I look at the serious, almost somber expressions on their faces and I remember the sea of red-white-&-blue ribbons, patriotic Tshirts and yes flag lapel pins that surfaced after the tragedy that befell us that day. I remember how, in those early days especially, that putting on a ribbon or pin, choosing patriotic colors for my hair elastics became almost a ritual. It was a way to cope, a way to show support, and also a way to heal.
For this poem alone, the way it seems to capture the new world we've all lived in these past 9 months I have to give it 5 stars!!!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
jiastar
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Location: Monmouth County, NJ
Reviews written: 368
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A wife ... a mom ... and a Witch
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