Sweet Land of Liberty (Ellis the Elephant, #1)

by Callista Gingrich

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

I picked up this book primarily because I love elephants, but one should note that Ellis's being an elephant is generally irrelevant. The book could have easily feature a monkey, a rabbit, or a small child and nothing would have changed.

That aside, the book does a good job of highlighting some key historical events in American history, but the focus is definitely on early American history: the first Thanksgiving, the Boston Tea Party, the Declaration of Independence, and Washington's crossing the Delaware. There are mentions of Lincoln and the first man on the moon, as well a general allusion to later wars (with a picture of the Iwo Jima Memorial), but the book seems unbalanced since half is about the events surround the Revolution and the other half attempts to cover the rest of America's 200 year history. Also, since each event only gets a page, I think young readers who are not already familiar with American history might just be confused since nothing is really explained.

The writing is a little painful, since the book rhymes but does not have any meter (a common mistake in picture books--either write actual poetry or don't rhyme, please!). Also, some words are clearly included primarily because they rhyme, not because they make sense in context.

A cute idea, with adorable pictures, but this book could have been better executed.