The Star Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key & Illus by Peter Spier

This is an awesome book. Gilbert loves song books and after checking this out of our local library a jillion times, we bought our own copy. 

Peter Spier was a Dutch immigrant who had been lived in a concentration camp in WWII. He had a deep love for the United States, and that love shines through in this book.  

This book is awesome. It is still difficult for me not to tear up as we sing this, even though I have read this a jillion times. 

One of the reasons I love this book is that it doesn't add a bunch of words or captions to interrupt the flow of the song. In that spirit, I am going to keep the chatter down today. Also, it is the Fourth! There are fun things to be doing and I must be off here to do them! Yay!

Hope your Independence Day is marvelous!

Flags of the United States

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light

What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight

O'er the ramparts we watch'd were do gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there.

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep, 

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, 

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,

In full glory reflected now shines in the stream.

'Tis the star-spangled banner, oh, long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand

Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation!

Blest with vict'ry and peace may the heav'n-rescued land

Praise the power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto, "In God is our Trust,"

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave 

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Rain by Peter Spier

This is one of my favorite picture books. I remember seeing this for the first time when I was a teenager and thinking this was a pinnacle of children's book illustrating. Since then, that pinnacle has had to evolve into more of a... mesa--there are a lot of illustrators I place on my favorite ever list, so it has to be a stable sort of place or they would all fall off. Even though my favorite ever mesa has enlarged, this book is still firmly planted there. 

It is awesome. 

There are no words in this book. It starts out with a boy and a girl playing in their garden. To the left you can see a rain cloud approaching. (Drum roll...oh the suspense!)

They start to feel a drizzle.

And then the rain comes down.  

Once properly suited up, they head back out to see how the world looks in the rain.

I love all the noticing they do. 

And the experimenting.

These particular pages are a favorite of mine. A favorite of my favorite book. It is a basic illustration, but for some reason, it still takes my breath slightly by the beauty of it. I really don't know why. I just love it.  

Feeding the ducks. And swans and geese.

Upside down puddle reflections

Running against the wind

Back inside to get warm and cozy again.

I want to be the mother who sits down with her kids after an exploration to see what they thought of it all. 

Inside things on a rainy day.

Checking to see if it is still raining.

Night falls on the wet streets.

And during the night, the storm blows away.

The kids wake up and check to see what sort of day it will be. 

I like these kids.

And they get up to see their world and sunshine-y and washed clean.

Noah's Ark by Peter Spier

I love Peter Spier. He is a fabulous illustrator. So fabulous that he doesn't even need words. I like fewer words at times. Especially in any story based on the bible. This is just my personal thought, but I want to be the one to explain things to my kids. Not because I am wiser than anyone else, (I am not. In case you thought I might be from all my wise and erudite posts...ha!) but because it just seems important for me to teach my kids about God--part of the reason God gave kids parents.  

Isn't that an adorable little Noah's Ark? I love it. eBay! It does puzzle me why Noah and his wife have little Dutch style outfits on, but it is still cute. 

This is the sum total of the words in the book. Well, besides the poem that you will see a picture of in a second. 

Noah and his sons building the ark, while everyone else passed on by.

The poem. Very basic, but effective.

Loading up

Haha! Noah trying to keep the number of bees at two. 

The donkey had to be stubborn.

Closing the doors

The rains began. The animals outside the ark is pretty heartbreaking. All of them dying because of man's stupidity. 

The ark rising over everything

They were full up! I love Peter Spier's attention to detail--the water for the animals, scooping the poop, the inevitable mess of that many animals in a confined space. 

It wasn't a luxury cruise.

Peter Spier does rain so well. 

Insects! 

Elephants and mice

Collecting eggs

Having a space for animals who need water and dry land is something I never thought of.

All alone on a sea of nothingness. Rather frightening if you weren't sure of God's support. 

Have you noticed the multi panel style of this book? Peter Spier does a lot of that. I think it is a pretty effective format. Since there are no words, a single picture per page wouldn't tell as complicated or nuanced a story as multiple pictures per page can tell. And if you tried to make each of these pictures a full page illustration, think of how gigantic this book would be. 

The multi panels also allows Spier to delve into the details that makes each page worth pouring over.

Long dark nights. I like that Spier includes the potentially darker moments. Noah is a little lonely, unsure looking here. Although he had monumental faith in God, I am sure his heart ached for the sinful, destroyed world; for those, maybe friends, who wouldn't heed his warnings and perished. There was also the weight of caring for all the surviving souls in the world. Not that God wasn't caring for them, but there would have been much for Noah to do and countless details to be remembered.

It is good for kids to see that it is normal to have some low times. 

Owls and full moons

The ark hits ground and things go slightly askew.

Sending out the crow

The dove

The green branch

Oh, the joy!

Spreading the good news. The animals excitement is paralleled by the cows at this time of year--green grass after a long winter of hay.

Getting ready to disembark.

Hesitant elephant

The rapidly multiplying rabbits testify to the length of time they had to live on the ark.

The world's creatures going forth

The abandoned ark. This is sort of poignant. This ark that was their world, that saved their life, was discarded, left behind. God didn't want them to live in the ark. 

I wonder if there were some worries in the minds of the others about living on the land that had just been flooded. Could it happen again? Maybe we should build quite close to the ark just in case. 

But God made a promise to them in the rainbow. And they had faith enough to leave the safety of the ark behind.