Mary Pope Osborne, creator of the immensely popular Magic Tree House chapter-book series, offers a poetic description of small town America on the 4th of July in this lovely picture-book. An extended family enjoys the day at Memorial Park, participating in various community activities - fundraisers, contests and games, eating good food - until it is time for the evening concert. After performances of some of America's most celebrated patriotic songs, the fireworks begin, and the entire audience is awed. The day draws to a close, and as the family are driving home, the boy-narrator wishes America a happy birthday...

Pairing an engaging narrative from Osborne with luminous artwork from illustrator Peter Catalanotto, Happy Birthday, America offers a snapshot of one rural community on an important day. Apparently Osborne's narrative is based on a 4th of July she spent in a real small town in Pennsylvania, the same town that Catalanotto traveled to, on another 4th, to get inspiration for his artwork. Given that this so, I find it rather disturbing that some have criticized this book for not being "diverse" enough. Our country is diverse, and part of what makes it diverse is that it is made up of a myriad of regions, states, cities, and communities, all of which have a different character and makeup. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the rural Euro-American community depicted here, anymore than there is something wrong with the urban, largely African-American and Latino communities depicted in the books of author/illustrators like Faith Ringgold. Leaving that issue aside - and it really should be a non-issue - this is a lovely work, one suffused with a sense of familial, communal and national love. Happy Birthday, indeed! ( )

Happy Birthday America!!! This is a wonderful book that takes the reader through an American tradition in celebrating the countries birthday! The 4th of July holiday is an extremely important holiday to celebrate in the American culture. This book explains and shares different traditions that happen on this special holiday such as, cook outs, parades, family bonding, games, plays, music, and last but not least fireworks! All of these are different traditions that people do to celebrate the birthday of the United States of America. This is a wonderful book to not only read for pleasure but to use as a teaching instruction book. Its a great and fun book to learn a part of the American History! ( )

"Happy Birthday, America" presents American culture in a fun, poetic way that will engage the minds of younger readers. The poetic text reads very quickly, and presents the important parts of our culture, such as The Knights of Columbus and concerts under the stars. The illustrations support the text by providing vivid visual representations that allow the reader to understand the key points of the story. The book challenges younger readers to view the American culture as its own distinct culture. The main idea of this book is to present American culture in an easy to understand way. ( )