Stars and Stripes Forever.
Just in time for Memorial Day, the Smithsonian Institute has published Sarah Thompson’s My Flag Book.
First, the positives:
- I love board books. My kids love board books. They are indestructible. So, thumbs up on the choice to go board book.
- The pricing. After shelling out far too much lately on new books, it was a pleasant surprise to see that the book sells for $5.99. Totally reasonable.
- It’s interactive. Each page asks a learning question - exactly the kind of thing that you’d expect from the Smithsonian Institute.
Now, the not so positives:
- The promotional materials claim that the book is for “up to age 5.” I don’t know many five year olds who would be captivated by the limited text. I think the book is really geared more for ages 1-3. My one year old liked flipping the pages and my three year old liked answering the questions. My five year old had zero interest.
- The book is a little on the, um, American pride side. Now, I mean no disrespect. I’m as patriotic as the next girl. But the “Do we love our flag?” bit at the end is really difficult to describe to a small child. It’s hard to explain why we *love* the flag to a toddler - and that being the “why?” stage, you can expect it to come up. I think, in the series of questions, it’s the most out of place.
I appreciate the difficulty in translating some material for the toddler crowd. And the book does a fairly decent job of getting there.
Memorial Day, patriotism, flag
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