I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE

This attempt to explain the Pledge’s meaning to younger children is at least as simplistic as it is enlightening. Using a combination of torn paper and simple, fluidly brushed strokes, Raschka (Be Boy Buzz, p. 1310, etc.) supplies a brightly colored backdrop of stylized children and adults, against which the Pledge’s words, generally one by one, are printed in large type and glossed in smaller: “God. Many people believe that a democracy is how God thinks—every single person is important.” Martin and Sampson (Tricks or Treat?, below, etc.) fill in bits of the historical background, mentioning Frances Bellamy, the Pledge’s original composer, but not that his version was very different from the present one, and closing with a dizzying recapitulation: “The flag stands for our history, our inventions, our music, sports, literature, faith . . . ” Children curious about the meaning of what so many of them are compelled to promise every morning in school will get less lyrical, but more factual, commentary from June Swanson’s I Pledge Allegiance (1990). (Picture book. 6-8)