America: A Patriotic Primer by Lynne Cheney, Robin Preiss Glasser (Illustrator)

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Three cheers for the red, white, and blue! In this dazzling tribute to the good old U.S. of A., Lynne Cheney, noted author and spouse of Vice President Dick Cheney, guides us through the ABC's of America, giving us a lesson in our country by paying homage to the people and qualities that make up our great nation.

Chock-full of useful information and exuberant pictures, America: A Patriotic Primer paints an exciting and thorough portrait of the U.S. From A to Z, each letter is given a theme, framed with stylized borders that include historical quotes, bonus facts, and people of interest. Each spread is truly a feast. The letters E and F, for example, stand for "Equality and Freedom and the Flag that we fly." Focusing on schoolchildren, the spread shows a diverse group of kids and adults raising an American flag in front of their school, with a paragraph about equality and the Pledge of Allegiance alongside. As if this weren't enough, E's and F's borders are stuffed with information, giving a timeline of important dates in equal-rights history, flag facts, and directions on proper flag folding. The other 24 letters are just as impressive, and Cheney's introduction -- along with additional explanatory information in the back -- help round it all out.

Cheney's book is an excellent resource for children wanting to learn our country's basics. Not only does she tell what America stands for, she presents the fundamentals in a thoughtful and fair way. Readers will be seeing fireworks over Glasser's plentiful illustrations, too, which breathe additional life into Cheney's words. An ideal read for anyone dedicated to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. (Matt Warner)

From the Publisher

Lynne Cheney has loved American history since she was a child and hopes to help today's children love it too. "America's story is a compelling one," she says, "and it helps us understand how fortunate we are to live in freedom." Mrs. Cheney, who has a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, is a widely published author. She co-authored one of her books, a history of the U.S. House of Representatives, with her husband, Vice President Dick Cheney. A former chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Mrs. Cheney is currently a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

The Vice President and Mrs. Cheney have two daughters and three granddaughters. Mrs. Cheney is pictured above with children whose relatives are navy personnel assigned to the U.S. Naval Observatory, the Vice President's residence in Washington, D.C. Mrs. Cheney is donating her net proceeds from this book to the American Red Cross and to projects that foster appreciation of American history.

Publishers Weekly

The Second Lady teams up with Glasser (the You Can't Take a Balloon series) to create this well-intentioned ("I wrote this book because I want my grandchildren to understand how blessed we are," writes Cheney in her introduction) if rather listless alphabet book celebrating the United States and its history. Rendered in ink, watercolor washes and colored pencil, Glasser's detailed, bustling art features multiple images on each spread and inventive borders containing pictures and brief factoids, yet the spreads have a slightly washed-out quality. The alphabetical entries include renowned individuals (Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln), milestones in this country's history (The Constitution, The Declaration of Independence) and generic terms (heroes, ideals, oath, patriotism, suffrage, valor). As the alphabet winds down, Cheney strikes a sentimental note, drawing readers into her narrative with her assertion that "Y is for You and all you will be in this greatest of countries, the land of the free." Glasser then provides simulated snapshots of children with captions denoting their career aspirations (e.g., "future art critic" and "test pilot of tomorrow"). Although many of the anecdotes and quotations from presidents and other patriots appear in a tiny type face, children will likely pore over the pages to glean the interesting tidbits offered. Cheney's concluding notes provide details about some of the individuals or events mentioned on the prior pages. A competent though less than compelling tribute. FYI: The author's net proceeds from the sale of the book are being donated to the American Red Cross and to projects that foster appreciation of American history. A portion of the publisher's proceeds from the sale of the book will also be donated to the Red Cross. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Susan Hepler - Children's Literature

Using the ABCs as a jump-start, Cheney and Glasser review with pride and enthusiasm what makes America unique among nations. The book opens with A for America and B for Birthday of the nation in a double-page spread celebration. Letters stand for ideas such as Equality, Freedom, Ideals, Patriotism, and Suffrage; artifacts such as the Constitution; people such as Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, James Madison, Native Americans, and George Washington; and others such as X, which marks various key locations of historical events; and Q commemorating America's quest for "the new, the far, and the very best." In a wonderful and hopeful accolade to youth, Y is for You, "and all you will be in this greatest of countries, the land of the free" and is illustrated by trading-card-like images of children who are future art critics or test pilots and in various occupations-to-be. Cheney and Glasser work in a tremendous amount of information by decorative borders of names or quotes, multiple sidebars lavishly captioned, and a centered short paragraph balancing the letter. Each letter incorporates a modern American family, for instance, reading in bed on J for Jefferson's page, with Jefferson's well-known quote underlining the picture, "I cannot live without books." Thus readers are treated to numerous facts about Jefferson plus several quotes, a formula echoed on the facing page of K for King. The letter-vignette pictures a white child lifting up a younger brown child to have a drink at the fountain and the quote is "Let justice roll down like waters." Ronald Reagan is the only president of recent history to earn a spot in the text, with a quote. (Readers may want to check outAlice Provensen's well-designed The Buck Stops Here, published in 1990 to review presidents through Reagan). This carefully designed book invites readers of all ages to consider, in Cheney's words, "how blessed we are...to be part of a nation whose citizens enjoy liberty and opportunity such as have never been known before." There's a lot to learn here and Glasser's cheerful, cartoonish, black-line, colored pencil, and watercolor illustrations wear their research lightly but accurately. Endnotes on the text are extensive and include information about patriots, heroes, and aspects to further each letter's presentation. 2002, Simon & Schuster,

School Library Journal

Gr 2-5-In this alphabetically arranged "Patriotic Primer," sample entries include "H is for Heroes and I for Ideals. Heroes remind us of our nation's ideals and how important it is to live up to them." Portrayed among the heroes, along with firefighters, teachers, and astronauts, are "elected leaders," which sounds uncomfortably self-serving coming from the wife of the vice president. For a country founded on the notion of the separation of church and state, God seems to pop up at every turn, even serving for the letter G: "for God in whom we trust." "P is for the Patriotism that fills our hearts with pride." Each letter is given at least a full page of captioned, informative drawings in ink, watercolor washes, and colored pencils. Quotes and facts frequently frame the oversized pages. "Notes on the Text" provides additional information. However, the final quote by Ronald Reagan and the large feel-good jacket photo of the author and a suitable rainbow array of children reinforce the feeling that this is a none-too-subtle paid political advertisement.-Dona Ratterree, New York City Public Schools Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

What does it mean to be an American? In her first effort for children, Cheney attempts to answer this question as well as encapsulate the entire history of the US through the familiar device of an alphabet book. Glasser's (You Can't Take a Balloon into the Museum of Fine Arts) cheerful watercolor-and-ink illustrations are the greatest strength of this ambitious project, with endearing children of all colors, kinds, and cultures, and dozens of historical figures and sites rendered in carefully researched detail. Each page or spread includes a topic sentence, several smaller related vignettes, a large initial letter framing a related illustration, and often a border incorporating a hand-lettered quotation. Packing all this information onto the page requires a crowded, busy design (a challenge met quite well by the designer), and some very small treatments of type, which are really too small for most children to read by themselves. The multiple illustrations on each page preclude reading the volume aloud to a group, although the information and the concepts will work well in elementary classrooms. The most likely use for this is for teachers and parents who want to teach their children about US history, citizenship, and patriotic concepts, probably focusing on just a few pages rather than the whole volume at once. Though the concept and busy design require some extra effort, this well-meant exploration of our history and heritage packs a huge amount of information between its covers.

Product Details

• Interviews & Essays

Interviews & Essays

A: I started thinking about it during the 2000 campaign, jotting ideas down on anything that came to hand, the margins of newspapers, scraps of paper. The campaign was such a lesson in America. Seeing the great cities and the natural beauty of the country, meeting people from all across the land, I found myself so deeply moved, time and again. I love this country and there is so much about it to love, and I wanted to make sure that my grandchildren -- that all children -- understand that.

Q: How did you decide what each letter stood for?

A: Some of the letters just fell into place. A is for America, of course. C has been the Constitution from the first moment and D the Declaration of Independence and J for Jefferson, K for Martin Luther King, L for Lincoln, M for Madison. Some of the others evolved. In the beginning Q was for Question, "the greatest question ever debated," in James Madison's words, and that was whether this country would become free and independent. But that gradually evolved into Quest -- "America's Quest for the new, the far, and the very best" -- which gave me an opportunity to talk about everything from our amazing achievements in sports and in the arts to our exploration of space.

Q: How did Robin Glasser become the illustrator for the book?

A: When I started talking about doing a children's book, friends brought me other children's books to look at and so did Brenda Bowen, who became the book's editor at Simon & Schuster. I loved Robin's drawings from the moment I laid eyes on them. They are so joyful. She also manages to get a lot of visual information on each page, and I liked that. There's a lot to tell about America.

Q: How did you and Robin work together?

A: It was a wonderful collaboration. I provided the basic framework and then we both began to fill it in. Robin came up with ideas and so did her sister, Jacqueline Weiss, who served as her research assistant. Robin lives in California, and over the months we were working on the book, we were in almost daily contact by e-mail and fax. Both of us spent days, evenings, and weekends on this project, but it never felt like a burden to either of us. It was so inspiring to work on this book.

Q: Was anyone else involved in the project?

A: I talked about this book with so many people that friends started coming up with ideas for it. V for a while was for Valley Forge. I wanted to talk about the sacrifices that people have made for freedom. A friend suggested that a better way to do that would be to make V for Valor, and thus it is. Robin came up with the idea of using the Congressional Medal of Honor to frame the page. My research assistant at the American Enterprise Institute, Stephanie Lundberg, and I came up with the idea of putting Congressional Medal of Honor recipients in the page's border. I believe Molly Pitcher was Robin's inspiration. I wanted the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the African-American unit that fought with such valor in the Civil War, and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the Japanese-American unit so highly decorated in World War II, on the page.

Q: Was the Vice President helpful?

A: Very. He's a serious student of history, particularly military history, and I turned to him from time to time. He and I were watching the HBO series Band of Brothers while I was working on the V page, which inspired me to put the World War II paratroopers there. The Vice President recommended that we illustrate the Enterprise, the aircraft carrier so important at the Battle of Midway in World War II. I remember his describing how effective it was in that battle and how it began the war and ended the war and went all through the Pacific. Stephanie and Robin and I had quite a time coming up with a picture that showed what the Enterprise looked like with planes on its deck. I believe Stephanie is the one who succeeded.

Q: How did you do the research?

A: I'm a book person. When I was working on the W is for Washington page I had biographies of Washington and histories of the Revolutionary War piled up everywhere. Fortunately over the years, Dick and I have gathered quite a library, but whatever order it had when I started this project has been totally disrupted. I also sought expert opinion like that of Bob Goldwin, one of my colleagues at the American Enterprise Institute who is deeply knowledgeable about the founding period. I would call him and ask, "Is it okay to say that our Constitution is the oldest written constitution in the world today?" And he would advise that I'd better insert "national" in that description. Stephanie Lundberg, my research assistant, was a great help. If you ask her when Jefferson proclaimed that he couldn't live without books, she'll have the answer for you in two minutes.

Q: Who is the audience for this book?

A: It's a children's book, but it's for parents and teachers, too. I think its best use will be when adults and children read and talk about it together. Reading experts talk about "dialogic reading" as a way of teaching reading that is particularly effective. Instead of just reading words while the child listens, you read a little bit, then talk about what you've read and about other things on the page that interest the child. This is a perfect book for that.

Q: Are there any surprises in this book?

A: Not surprises, exactly, but discoveries that children and their parents might make after several readings. On the C (is for Constitution) page, the illustration around the letter C shows three children playing jump rope. Why three, careful readers might ask? And the answer, which they could figure out from the material at the back of the book, is that the Constitution established three branches of government. The three branches work together just as the three children play together.

Q: How did September 11th affect the book?

A: It made it more important to me. This is a book that helps little kids understand the principles our country is based on, the ideas that underlie our freedom. When we are under attack, it's particularly important that the next generation understand the foundations of our liberty.

On the opening page, which shows a Fourth of July celebration in New York harbor, there's a banner with words from "America the Beautiful": "Thine alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears!" To this day I can't read that without choking up.

Q: What do your grandchildren think about the book?

A: They're fascinated by it. I can't wait to get a real copy of it for them. They know a lot about American history already. The seven-year-old can tell you quite a bit about George Washington. And she's been to Frederick Douglass's home. She and her four-year-old sister, who sings a great "God Bless America," are going to have a wonderful time exploring this book. And I suspect when the two-year-old sees all of us reading it, she'll want to take part too.

Q: Have you written history for children before?

A: When I first started writing years and years ago, I did a few things for children. One I remember was the story of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman doctor. Over the years I've written history for a variety of magazines, including Smithsonian and American Heritage. I wrote a book about important historical figures in the House of Representatives with my husband when he was a congressman from Wyoming. It was called Kings of the Hill. I wrote about history often when I was chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. My point was that we need to do a better job of conveying our national story to the next generation. I still speak about that today -- and I hope that America: A Patriotic Primer will go some way to help accomplish that.