Our 50 States: A Family Adventure Across America

by Lynne Cheney

"As I've traveled our great country, I have been struck again and again by its beauty and variety and reminded of how rich our history is. Travel a few miles in any direction, and you'll encounter an amazing story that helps explain all the multitude of ways our country came to be." -- Lynne Cheney

Lynne Cheney and Robin Preiss Glasser, creators of the bestselling America: A Patriotic Primer and A is for Abigail: An Almanac of Amazing American Women, take you on an unforgettable tour of America -- from the Everglades of Florida to the grasslands of Kentucky to the Sierra Mountains of California.



Listening to her grandchildren's enthusiastic account of all they saw and did on a family road trip inspired Lynne Cheney to collaborate with Robin Preiss Glasser and create Our 50 States -- the greatest family vacation imaginable. Pack your bags and celebrate our diverse heritage state by state and sea to shining sea in this treasure trove of America's people, places, and history.



A scholar of American history, Mrs. Cheney has drawn on a lifetime of study and travel for Our 50 States. Robin Preiss Glasser has brought her inimitable wit and exuberance to every illustration. Together they have created a joyful book that reminds us how fortunate we are to call America our home.

Genres: History, Geography, Childrens, Nonfiction, Picture Books, Travel, American History

76 pages, Hardcover

First published October 24, 2006

About the author

Lynne Ann Vincent Cheney, is a novelist, conservative scholar, and former talk-show host who is the wife of former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Reviews

[Dolly]

This story was nominated as one of the books for the August 2012 - Traveling reads at the Picture-Book Club in the Children's Books Group here at Goodreads. It wasn't one of the books selected, but we wanted to read it anyway.

This is a difficult book to rate. It could be a very useful book for preparing a report on a particular state, except that the information provided is often just a short note or fact. It might be interesting to read independently, but it's a book that invites browsing more than reading. And it's certainly a factual book, but it is overwhelming with details. The way we tackled this book is by reading only a state or two each night, looking over each page and pointing out the facts and snippets of information that we found to be the most interesting. I'm not sure how else we could've approached it. There's a lot of good info here, but it's just too much.

On the bright side, we are big fans of Robin Preiss Glasser's illustrations. We've been reading Fancy Nancy books for years and have come to love her creative style; our girls pointed out right away where they'd seen her illustrations before.

[Els]

My favorite type of book as a wee thing. Still fun to poke back into them. :)

[Sara]

I really enjoyed reading this book. It is a great book to pick up and put down, reading in small chunks; it is hard to read it through all in one sitting. I think it would be an especially fun book to keep in a child's library to refer back to whenever going to visit another state or whenever learning about different states in school. I highly recommend this book.

[Christina]

Impressive layout, with a busy page full of quick facts and small illustrations filling a page for each state. Not enough depth to have value as information for a more advanced reader, but it would be fun for a roadtrip or just general knowledge about the various states. The Tennessee page is weirdly heavily focused on Memphis.

[Casey McCormick]

Such a fantastic book, though not suited for reading aloud. I'd recommend this for an independent reader who can take the time to pour over the pictures and facts on their own.

[Denali]

Holy guacamole this was all over the place. It took me several pages to decide to continue reading.

The illustrations were great.

Layout (that differed page to page) gave me a headache.

As many have mentioned, this is not a book meant to be read aloud or from cover to cover in 1 (or even 3) sitting. I read 1-3 pages per day and it was a fun summer activity.

Not sure if I would pick up another book by this writer, but I will look for other books by the illustrator.

[Jessica Kirsch]

We used this as a curriculum spine for our study of the 50 states. It was pretty good for that purpose. Fantastic illustrations and a pretty decent overview of each state.

I give it 4 stars for elementary educational purposes.

[Henry Tennant]

really intriguing

[Heidi Morrell]

This was a very exciting , different exploration of the 50 states ! Even the youngest ones discovered various places we'd like to visit some day , if possible .

[Lynn]

An interesting, fun way to learn about our state - beautifully illustrated and just plain fun to read!

[Janet]

Bright and cheerful for young children to learn about the 50 States.

[Carolyn]

The pages are filled with interesting tidbits and facts about each state and brilliant illustrations too.

[Lynn]

This is an incredible book, the illustrations are intriguing, clever and the travel across our states leads to a lot of the most interesting things that make America, A M E R I C A !!! Loved it!

[Laurenc]

I thought it was really,really AWESOME! It is kind of a long book so I didn't read all the whole book but I read half of some of the pages. My favorite pages are: New Jersey, Hawaii,Massachusetts,and my home state New York. Someday I want to travel through the whole United States including Alaska and Hawaii!

Lauren, age 6

[Theresa]

the vice presidents wife wrote childrens stories to inspire children to be an active american citizen this book shows aspects and ideas of the formation and ideology of each state with lists of historical figures and facts from each state

[Jen H.]

Similar to Go Go America. Mixture of interesting facts on each state and things to see and places to visit. Fancy Nancy illustrator.

[Sarah]

I would take this book along on a road trip or when planning a trip just so I could see some interesting sites that she hi-lights in this book. Great for kids.

[Michelle Polk]

Very nicely illustrated historical book about our states. Fun and whimsical along with educational. A plus to any home library shelf.

[Cornelius]

I would recommend this book for Social Studies integration with reading because students can read and learn about each of the 50 states in our nation.

[Amanda Smith]

This book was information overload. There is so much information about each state that is was overwhelming. There are some great facts though, so it would be a good resource for student.

[Patricia Davis]

Excellent for children of all ages. Factually correct.

[anna]

The illustrations in the book were really nice. It was a fun way to learn about our 50 states.

[Caren Adams]

Love that there is so much information packed on each page, about each state. Illustrations are charming. Even adults can learn from this book!

[Carol]

A fun book to armchair travel around the USA.

[Stephanie Watson]

Though the concept is really fun, execution makes each page too overwheling to read. Good facts but written a little too dryly.