I am honestly torn in two, trying to review this book. I love hyping up the parks for the kids, but the history lesson at the end was a bit much.

On one hand, it's a beautiful review of a handpicked sixteen of the US National Parks. I loved hearing about the different offerings, and getting a little bit of trivia about each one.

But then I got to the afterward, where it speaks of the origin of the National Parks. While not technically part of the children's rhyming and fun illustrated section, it's still there and IT IS GRIM. Hey kids, let's give you some dark and violent history on how the parks came to be. Did you know Yosemite actually means "they are killers", in the language of the Native Americans who were terrorized and literally burned out of the location so the white people could come and say "how pretty"? Or how about the people who were given awful stereotypes and forced to abandon their homes to create Shenandoah National Park?

Then the very next page has cute quotations from little kids upon visiting a national park. I mean, yeah, that's what the book offers, but holy crap, guys. Fun, cool, SUPER DARK, then adorable, all in one book?

I think I just wanted to know ahead of time. I got slapped in the face and shocked by it, so you don't have to.

I think that this is a wonderful illustrated book highlighting sixteen of our US National Parks. Each park has a paragraph on its history and geography. The book ends with the history of the park system with some of its faults and a hint at the ecology. I loved it and so will the grands!
The illustrations by Vivian Mineker are fun, simply delightful, colorful, and evocative of the very essence of nature as preserved by the US National Parks.
Well suited for reading WITH someone of any age including ESL, and great for gifting to anyone, but especially to a school or your public library!
I requested and received a free temporary e-book on Adobe Digital Editions from Charlesbridge via NetGalley. Thank you!

This is a pleasant picture book acquainting the reader with sixteen National Parks in the United States. Vivian Mineker's illustrations are pretty and fun, containing many children. They are quite inclusive, showing multiple ethnicities, ages, and even a child in a wheelchair. The book is written in two-sentence verses about the park with an additional box of facts about each, most of which can likely be understood by the target audience of four- to seven-year-olds or easily explained by an adult. After the main story, the author has included two pages of more detailed information about the National Park Service. This includes a general overview, a history, and a section on "Troubled Beginnings" which details two instances of people being removed from their land for the Park Service to form a National Park on that site. The section also talks about the Park Service today striving to be more mindful and respectful of communities for whom the park sites are meaningful, in part by attempting to preserve the cultural histories of indigenous people displaced by the forming of National Parks.
"I am made of Mountains" contains a nice sampling of United States National Parks from coast to coast. There is a map showing more National Parks and highlighting the ones from the book.
I found some of the verses a bit forced and the end material is tailored for adults. However, even these last pages could be discussed with a younger audience. Overall, an informative and entertaining book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Charlesbridge Publishing for the ARC.

This is a beautifully made educational children's book about the National Parks. There is a wonderful diversity of people (culture and disability) enjoying the outdoors while the narration is from the first person perspective of nature, enticing us to visit and enjoy what the outdoors have to offer. The illustrations are beautiful with wild colors. On each 2 page spread there is an illustration, a fun fact about that specific National Park, and the narration of "nature". As someone who is a huge fan of our National Parks I enjoyed learning things I never knew about them. I didn't even know about Cuyahoga Valley!
My favorite line was when nature was describing it's tide pools. "I welcome pools of friends, protect them when the tide shifts."
The only thing I didn't like was the white space under the text. It felt off in comparison to the rest of the color filled page. The red font of the National Park names on the stark white background also threw me off.
Thank you again to the publisher and Alexandra S.D. Hinrichs for allowing me to preview this beautiful book!

This is a lovely rhyming children’s book about national parks in the US. I was really looking forward to reading a little bit about all of them but it only covers some. Each one has a double page spread and short poem along with a small blurb.

The illustrations are diverse with different ages and pretty good representation, including at least one person in a wheelchair. I also really appreciated the ending where they talked about more problematic parts of national park history such as removing Native people and the residents of the Shenandoah mountains to create many of the parks.

All in all a wonderful book, though I really wish more parks were included. Recommended.

I read a temporary digital copy of this book via NetGalley.

Omg! This book is so beautiful inside out!
I love the lush illustrations so much! Forget the young readers, I am more motivated to go outside and start trekking or camping right away at a nearby hilly side!

Love the footnotes. They do provide so much reliable information. It’s a pleasure to enjoy amazing cute calming illustrations alongside singsong writing and news-flash like titbits that actually says a lot about what we are reading about.

A big thumbs up to the team!

Thank you, Charlesbridge, for the advance reading copy.