For Spacious Skies
Katharine Lee Bates and the Inspiration for “America The Beautiful”
By
Nancy Churnin
illustrated by Olga Baumert
Picture Book Biography / Women’s Suffrage / Woman Poet
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
Date of Publication: April 1, 2020
Number of Pages: 32
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As a little girl growing up during the Civil War, Katharine Lee Bates grew up to become a poet, professor, and social activist. She not only wrote “America the Beautiful” but gave this anthem to America as a gift. A member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and a suffragist who stood up for a woman’s right to vote and lived to cast her ballot in presidential elections, Katharine believed in the power of words to make a difference. In “America the Beautiful,” her vision of the nation as a great family, united from sea to shining sea, continues to uplift and inspire us all.
Praise
“Churnin tells that story in a spare and lively text beautifully complemented by double-page spreads highlighting Baumert’s gorgeous panoramic illustrations . . . A handsome volume befitting its subject.”—Kirkus Reviews
“The story ends on a high note in 1920, with Bates casting her ballot after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted voting rights to women . . . The richly colored, nicely composed artwork will help children visualize the period setting while enjoying the portrayals of Bates and beautiful landscapes. A picture-book biography of a notable American.”—Booklist
“Nancy Churnin has written a delightful book that helps children understand the many dimensions of my great-aunt Katharine Lee Bates. This book does an excellent job conveying her ardent passion for equal rights and for her country. She was a poet, a professor, and a world traveler, but she was first and foremost a citizen who loved America, in all its beauty and diversity.”—Katharine Lee Holland
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Author Interview with Nancy Churnin
How has being a Texan influenced your writing?
Texans have a can-do-it attitude. When I find someone amazing like Katharine Lee Bates, a person that I feel kids should know about but don’t, I don’t worry about why there isn’t a current book out about her. I think, “I can do that,” and I do it.
Is there anything that you learned in your research that you weren’t able to include in the book?
As much as I tried, given the length and thematic constraints of a picture book, I couldn’t find a way to cram in that she also wrote “Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride,” a poem about MRS. SANTA CLAUS! The female empowerment is wonderful as is the creation of Mrs. Claus. Ironically, Mrs. Claus saves the day by mending holes in stockings so that the toys don’t fall out. The irony, of course, is that Katharine hated sewing so much that when she was given dolls as a child she would just plaster leaves on them for clothes rather than sew fabric together. I think Goody Santa Claus was a tribute to her widowed mother, who took in sewing as well as laundry, to help make the money that allowed Katharine to go to school.
Why did you choose to write in your particular genre?
I’ve spent decades profiling people as a journalist, first with the Los Angeles Times and most recently with the Dallas Morning News, with many magazines and newspapers in between. While picture-book biographies are a very different art form than newspaper features, they do share some common characteristics: identifying a person with a great story, researching that person, and evoking sensory details that make you feel you’re there.
Where did your love of books come from?
Both my parents loved to read so much that, when they married in the midst of the Great Depression, their first purchase was the book Tomorrow Will Be Better by Betty Smith. My mother was a teacher, now retired, and when they were able to afford their first home, the first thing they did was transform what should have been a dining room into a floor-to-ceiling library, with comfortable chairs. I grew up with the philosophy, “Let them eat books!” That room and my neighborhood public library were my favorite places to be.
How long have you been writing?
It’s hard for me to remember a time when I wasn’t writing! My first book was published in 2016, but I have been writing poems and short stories in a journal since I was old enough to write and newspaper articles since I was in junior high school. My sister found a copy of a book I wrote and illustrated myself called “A Boy Called Doodlebug and Other Names.” The kids and I laugh together when I share it at presentations.
What kinds of writing do you do?
My nine books are all picture-book biographies. I look forward to stretching and trying new genres, including historical fiction.
How do you write? Any backstory to your choice?
A mix of longhand and computer. Writing things out seems to get different parts of the brain humming than typing on the computer does.
What cultural value do you see in books and storytelling?
Books are at once magical and spiritual. They allow us to fill pages with our hopes, dreams, and ideas and share them with others in a way that allows them to experience and feel what we’ve experienced and felt, across ages, genders, religions, races—all those things that we allow to separate us—and to recognize our common humanity.
There’s a reason that one of Adolf Hitler’s first acts was to burn books. He needed to destroy the repositories of humanity in order to get people to obey his inhumane commands. There’s a reason that Ray Bradbury created a futuristic world in which firemen burn books in his book, Fahrenheit 451. He recognized that the first step in isolating, separating, and weakening communities was eliminating the books with stories that bind us together. Leaders who value control above all, like Hitler, are the enemies of books. Conversely, those of us who want to build a better world, a more humane world, a world of hope and love, can do it with books.
Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a picture book meant for young children or toddlers. This book is perfect for elementary school children (or older) and teaches the reader about the author of a poem set to music that we know as “America The Beautiful.”
I have sung this song many times in my life and never thought much about the words or the author that penned them. However, after reading this book, I was intrigued by Katharine’s life and how she came to write this poem that became a sort of national anthem for the United States. It isn’t the official one, but reading the words felt like it described our country and its people. The poem went through several revisions before it became the one we know today. I could picture her crossing the country and observing the “amber waves of grain” and “purple mountain majesties” that inspired her words. The original poem was written 127 years ago and the USA was a different country then, but we can still see some of what Katharine saw all those years ago.
The illustrations really brought the words of this poem to life. There is an illustration of Niagara Falls and I felt like I could feel the water and dip my hands into the blue water. Side note, make sure if you read the eBook version to have a table or color e-Reader to view the book. An e-Ink reader will not do the illustrations justice.
Outside of her achievement with this poem, Katharine was quite a remarkable woman. She helped fight for women’s rights, especially the right to vote. She believed that women could do anything that men could do and encouraged education for all.
This book captures some of our history that might be lost and the format is perfect for anyone to read and whet their appetite for more about Katharine or anyone else that helped shape our country. We give this book 5 paws up.
Nancy Churnin is the award-winning author of eight picture book biographies with a ninth due in 2021.
Beautiful Shades of Brown, The Art of Laura Wheeler Waring is A Mighty Girl pick that will be featured at the 2020 Ruby Bridges Reading Festival at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee in May. The William Hoy Story, a Texas 2X2 pick, has been on multiple state reading lists. Manjhi Moves a Mountain is the winner of the 2018 South Asia Book Award and a Junior Library Guild selection. Martin & Anne, the Kindred Spirits of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank is on the 2020 Notable Book for a Global Society list from the International Literacy Association. Irving Berlin, the Immigrant Boy Who Made America Sing is a 2019 Sydney Taylor and National Council for the Social Studies Notable.
Nancy graduated cum laude from Harvard, has a master’s from Columbia, and lives in Plano, Texas, with her husband, Dallas Morning News arts writer Michael Granberry, their dog named Dog, and two cantankerous cats.
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GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!
THREE WINNERS
ONE WINNER receives signed copies of both
For Spacious Skies and Beautiful Shades of Brown
TWO WINNERS each receive a signed copy of For Spacious Skies
April 16-26, 2020
(US only for signed copies; international winners via Book Depository)
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| 4/16/20 | Notable Quotable | Book Fidelity |
| 4/16/20 | Review | Carpe Diem Chronicles |
| 4/17/20 | Book Trailer | KayBee’s Book Shelf |
| 4/18/20 | Review | Chapter Break Book Blog |
| 4/18/20 | Sneak Peek | Hall Ways Blog |
| 4/19/20 | Author Interview | StoreyBook Reviews |
| 4/20/20 | Review | Story Schmoozing Book Reviews |
| 4/21/20 | Playlist | Texas Book Lover |
| 4/21/20 | Review | That’s What She’s Reading |
| 4/22/20 | Author Interview | Tangled in Text |
| 4/23/20 | Guest Post | Max Knight |
| 4/23/20 | Review | All the Ups and Downs |
| 4/24/20 | Deleted Scene | Reading by Moonlight |
| 4/25/20 | Review | Forgotten Winds |
| 4/25/20 | Review | Jennifer Silverwood |
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WOW! This post is packed with good stuff. Everyone needs to get this book – great review.