Happy Birthday, America

by Mary Pope Osborne, Peter Catalanotto (Illustrations)

Three generations of a family join in a lively small-town celebration of Independence Day, including a parade, a picnic, music, and fireworks. Reprint.

Genres: Picture Books, Holiday, Childrens, Summer, Historical Fiction, Storytime, Family

32 pages, Paperback

First published April 9, 2003

About the author

Mary Pope Osborne is an American author of children's books and audiobook narrator. She is best known as the author of the Magic Tree House series, which as of 2017 sold more than 134 million copies worldwide. Both the series and Osborne have won awards, including for Osborne's charitable efforts at promoting children's literacy. One of four children, Osborne moved around in her childhood before attending the University of North Carolina. Following college, Osborne traveled before moving to New York City. She somewhat spontaneously began to write, and her first book was published in 1982. She went on to write a variety of other children's and young adult books before starting the Magic Tree House series in 1992. Osborne's sister Natalie Pope Boyce has written several compendium books to the Magic Tree House series, sometimes with Osborne's husband Will Osborne.

Reviews

[Brina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Happy Birthday, America. I’ve baked my flag cake and am ready to barbecue and watch the fireworks later tonight. My kids are long past the picture book stage but they still ask to get Mary Pope Osborne’s classic every year because it is our favorite depiction of July 4th. Whether you share Mary Pope Osborne’s Independence Day traditions or not, the book and corresponding illustrations are a beautiful slice of Americana. Happy Birthday, America, and happy and safe celebrating to all!!!

💥 5 stars 💥
🦅 🗽 🇺🇸

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

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!

[Book2Dragon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more about the celebration of the 4th of July than the actual historical event, except for the post-note by the author citing the origins of the holiday. It is, though, about family and about celebration in small town America.
For younger children I would think.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story follows a family (grandparents, parents, aunt, and kids and dog) at the hometown 4th of July festivities at a local park Author Mary Pope Osborn says it was inspired by a 4th of July that she and her husband spent in southeastern Pennsylvania. I'm not sure in what year that took place, but the book is copyright 2003 yet almost has a 90s feel, IMO. The festival is very much traditional "Americana" -- hotdogs and BBQs, brass band, games and prizes, face painting and balloon animals, fireworks and recitals. This is just depicting one family's hometown celebration and I think it does a nice job of that.
I've seen the book criticized for lacking diversity, but I don't know about that. The central family appears Caucasian but I *think* the crowd reflects some diversity -- it is really hard to tell because the illustrations are kind of indistinct (the the illustrations are really not to my taste) Or perhaps this is just one of the many towns in America that is a predominately Euro-American community, especially considering this was published 20 years ago. And I appreciate that the book is sensitive and inclusive in another way that is not often seen in picture books; ; the grandfather is in a wheelchair and not really verbally interactive with the family (the only words he speaks that day are during the fireworks when he comments how pretty they are) yet he is seen throughout as an integral part of the family, as well as enjoying the celebrations in his own way. This really touched me given my own family circumstances.
For a more contemporary 4th of July book, with lovely diversity, and some really stellar illustrations (by the mega-talented Jason Chin), I highly recommend, Pie Is for Sharing.

[Leah Sidell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Happy Birthday America is about a family and their dog who enjoy their 4th of July by doing so many fun things together like going to parades, eating popcorn, tap dancing, and having a barbecue. The family even see's a girl holding a sparkler dressed as lady liberty and they listen to Mr. Sabertini read from the Declaration of Independence. When the fireworks finally began they look like a million pieces of gold raining down on the trees. This book not only tells a story of a family enjoying their 4th of July, but also talks about the history of America's Birthday. For students that are in school during the summer can learn about 4th of July from this book. After reading this book to students, the teacher can show a video of fireworks and let the students who have never heard or seen fireworks before get familiar with them. The teacher can also talk about the American flag and why it has 13 stripes. Then a good literacy activity would be to have the students write down adjectives that they think would describe the fireworks. They can go around the room and share what adjectives they chose then the students can draw a picture of the American Flag.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about the American celebration of the Fourth of July. The book shares the celebration that goes on in a small town with a family, of three generations. They share in traditional activities like barbeques, dancing, parades and band concerts. I really appreciated the artwork as it complimented the text in a very supportive way.
This would be a great book to share with grades K-4.

[Andrea Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a wonderful little book with beautiful pictures!

[Hannah Dahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Upper Primary/ Middle Grades
Historical Fiction

I liked this book a lot. I picked it up and checked it out on a whim because I liked the cover art. I think that there are a lot of things that could be learned from this book. This book could be used to showcase the reason we celebrate the Fourth of July to a primary class and I believe that they would be able to comprehend it. I like that this book made it fun to read through and included many brightly illustrated pictures.

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

That book is lame. Truly. I rarely give less than 3 stars and almost never give one star - but this book..1 star is being generous. It honestly had nothing to do with America, her history, patriotism, nothing. It mentioned fireworks. If that is what we’ve reduced Independence Day to, we, as a nation, are in big trouble.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hadn't read any of Osborne's books besides her Magic Tree House Series, although I knew of them. This one reads as an authentic experience of a family celebrating the Fourth of July with their community.

[Alicia Steagall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent patriot American celebration story to read to little ones. Americas birthday and it’s a beautiful story of a family.

[Sharon🔮👽 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was too precious! 🎆

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A family celebrates the fourth of July in the classic ways.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice illustrations

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oops! I meant to read this book yesterday, but with all of the activity and fireworks and friends, we just didn't get to it until this morning. The story tells about one little boy's Independence Day activities, and we smiled at the fact that several of the events mirrored our own.

The narrative is short and entertaining to read aloud and the illustrations really help to convey the celebratory mood of the day. We really enjoyed reading this book together, even if it was on the day after our nation's birthday.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This picture book is about a festival to celebrate the 4th of July and American's Independence Day. The young boy takes the reader to the park where there is food, fun and activities. The best part of the night is the fireworks. A short background of the American Declaration of Independence is given at the end of the story.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

We listened to the book on CD version. I like how the book takes you through what might be a typical Fourth of July day for a small town in America. I would have liked it more if there had been any music behind the story as she talked about what songs were being sung. Overall it was a little uneventful.

[Tara Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the illustrations! And any book that can make me tear up with patriotism is perfect to me. This describes the perfect Independence day (while leaving out the realism of heat, crowds, crying babies, grumpy kids & parents, etc.)

[Rebecca Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be a great book to teach about the Fourth of July. After reading this book the students can write about how they spend their fourth of July then you can teach them what the celebrating is all about.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A simple story illustrating a small town Independence Day celebration, this book is worth owning. As a teacher that reviews each holiday I loved this book. A small easy to understand history of the holiday is included. The illustrations are lovely.

[Cws]

JEPIC-Osb

[Amanda Murphy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really hoping for a little more of the history behind America's birthday and less of the celebratory traditions.

[Alexandria K · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about america's birthday on July the 4th. The pictures are adorable the story is adorable, too.

[Lauren White · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for grades 2-6. Traditions

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the illustrations! They're very warm and evocative of a small-town celebration. The story is fine.

[Becca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Celebrating the 4th of July. Very "Norman Rockwell". I wish it were more diverse in representing people in the illustrations.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very basic plot and many references that children may not know. The illustrations were blurry and uninteresting to me, but colorful.

[Katie Zebrowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great picture book about the 4th of July.

[Christine Turner]

Great choice for storytime.