America the Beautiful - Hardcover

Bates, Katharine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399238859 ISBN 13: 9780399238857

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, 2003

Synopsis

Wendell Minor is an extraordinarily talented fine artist who has received more than two hundred awards for his work. Authors refer to him as a "quiet genius" who creates with simplicity and elegance, a "master" at capturing the essence of the written word in vivid imagery, of creating brilliant paintings that evoke the true spirit of story and place. He has illustrated hundreds of covers for many of the most popular books of the past few decades.

Now, inspired by Katharine Lee Bates's classic verse, Minor gives readers his first picture book-beautiful visual accompaniment for an American standard. Traversing the entire nation, from the Empire State Building to the Grand Tetons, from the Alaskan coast to the Florida Everglades; encompassing multiple eras, from Pilgrims to wagon trains, from the Wright brothers to NASA, Minor takes us on a journey across land and time-literally from sea to shining sea.

 

About this title

Review:

Skilled watercolor and gouache artist Wendell Minor sets the lyrics to one of America's favorite songs to pictures in this lovingly patriotic tribute.

It's hard to imagine a better primer on the history or meaning behind "America the Beautiful" than this--Minor's elegant, evocative illustrations back up each line of Katharine Lee Bates' breathless prose, and an informative introduction by Minor and bios on both Bates and composer Samuel Augustus Ward provide ample background on the song's journey to cultural cult status. Surely, this is a "heartland"-centric homage, but that's no doubt the nature of the song. The images display an older, idealized America, one of absent teepees and endangered buffalos ("For purple mountain majesties/Above the fruited plain!") and white girls in covered wagons ("A thoroughfare for freedom beat/Across the wilderness"). But Minor also alludes to future hope, with a climbing space shuttle ("O beautiful for patriot dream") and the fallen WTC commemorated in lights ("Thine alabaster cities gleam/Undimmed by human tears!").

Minor proved his artistic chops in the likes of Shane and a John James Audubon biography, and those skills get put to doting use here, in a primer appropriate for young patriots everywhere. (Ages 4 to 8) --Paul Hughes

About the Author:

Wendell Minor is a graduate of the Ringling School of Art and Design. His work is in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, the Museum of American Illustration, and the NASA Art Collection at the John F. Kennedy Space Center.

About this edition

• Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0399238859
• ISBN 13: 9780399238857
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Minor Wendell