America the Beautiful written and illustrated by Wendell Minor with poem by Katharine Lee Bates is one of the most visually exciting picture books about America from “sea to shining sea” that has been produced. In the Introduction the author gives the reader background on poet Bates and her 1893 journey from Cape Cod to Pikes Peak ---making diary notes all the way about the beauty she saw.
The book features 21 special places across the country which Wendell Minor captures and matches up with the words to the poem. The words “O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain,” grace Minor’s breathtaking watercolor of the golden wheat fields of Kansas. The watercolor for “America! America! God shed His grace on thee” features an angelic weathervane carved first in the late 18th Century which spreads across two pages of Vermont’s blue sky. Below there stands a church.
The watercolors are all identified in the back materials giving, as the author says, “a sense of time and place” for each. There is also a useful map of the United States which pinpoints all 21 places geographically including Mt. Rushmore, Niagara Falls, Kitty Hawk and The Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral to name a few.
Biographical material about Bates and her poem and Samuel Augustus Ward and his music is also included. The lyrics and the music were first published together as a song in 1910.
America the Beautiful written and illustrated by Wendell Minor has gorgeous depths of color that are amazing! It will be enjoyed by children 4-7 years of age and, in fact, the whole family (Charlesbridge, 2020).
The Children’s Bookshelf is a production of WCMU. Links to the podcast and the Activity Questions can be found at Children’s Bookshelf dot org.
Activity Questions for America the Beautiful
With the help of parents and teachers go online and find the song “AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL” as sung by The Mormon Tabernacle Choir. How does their vocal and instrumental interpretation bring the song and words alive? How does this performance make you feel? There are also a variety of other artists presenting this song to experience online.
Which three of the 21 watercolors by Wendell Minor are your favorites? Ask parents to identify their three favorite illustrations, too. Then have a family conversation about your choices. Be sure to discuss the colors used, the subject matter and how Katharine Bates’s poem is represented in each illustration.
Now it is time for a sing- along! Ask parents, grandparents and older siblings to join you. You can follow the lyrics in the book. Have fun!
