God Bless Our Country by Hannah C. Hall (Book Review)
Now more than ever, I want my children to come to love and appreciate America as a special gift from God. I was excited to review God Bless Our Country by Hannah C. Hall, hoping it would teach them about patriotic symbols and what they tell us about America’s greatness.
The book wasn’t quite what I expected. It’s more about celebrating summer time, with a nod to traditional 4th of July celebrations thrown in while not actually naming the holiday. One page talks about going on a picnic, watching the clouds, and ants heading off with apple pie. Then it turns patriotic for a minute, speaking of raising the flag and thanking God for this land. But then we’re back to digging in the garden and enjoying ice cream before watching a parade. From that point on the text focuses summer activities (swimming, stargazing,playing hide-and-seek) and praising God for our country, while the illustrations show more picnicking, playing with sparklers, and finally a fireworks show.
Overall, it was was a cute book with colorful pencil illustrations of animal characters by Steve Whitlow, but I felt like it was lacking focus. This sturdy board book will probably end up on the shelf in my 2-year old’s room rather than in with our other patriotic books. He’ll appreciate the cute animal illustrations and it’s a nice introduction to 4th of July celebrations.
