HATS OFF FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY!

The business of a parade is to march along with style and zip and knock the socks off those who watch. Add the excitement of the nameless narrator in Ziefert’s (First He Made the Sun, see above, etc.) rhythmic, rhymed Fourth of July parade to first-time illustrator Miller’s humor, and readers receive a down-home parade that means business. The book captures summer’s spirit, from the shorts and T-shirts of the watchers to the sun-blocking card on the balloon-seller’s nose and the winding-down, post-parade, nighttime fireworks. Parade units pass by in full-bleed spreads, the last unit leaving off one edge, the next nosing into place on the other, pictures that echo the anticipation expressed in text: “Who will be the next to come?” It's all here, what those lucky enough to experience parades in small towns or active urban neighborhoods know. There’s the twirler who drops her baton; the unleashed dog who picks it up; the cowboys who’ve recruited a kid to clean up after their horses and the stilt-walker (there’s always a stilt-walker!). Then there’s the big kids’ float and the one done up by adults; the little kids’ marching band and the one from the high school, not to mention the antique cars; the motorcycles; the Little Leaguers and the kids on bicycles rag-tagging parade’s end. Hats off indeed to this splendid parade of a book. (Picture book. 2-5)