We Are America: A Tribute from the Heart - Paperback

We Are America: A Tribute from the Heart - An Award-Winning Picture Book

This acclaimed picture book from Newbery Honor author Walter Dean Myers and Coretta Scott King Honor artist Christopher Myers explores the essence of American identity through stunning panoramic paintings and historically rich text. The father-son team behind the Caldecott Honor Book Harlem delivers a powerful visual and literary journey through America's complex story.

What Makes This Book Special

The book features passionate writings and vivid portraits spanning American history, from Shawnee chief Tecumseh to Abraham Lincoln to Jimi Hendrix. Through graceful, lyrical prose paired with evocative paintings, readers encounter the struggles, ideals, and ongoing hope that define the American experience. The Washington Post praised it as paying "tribute to the variety of America as well as to its promise," while the New York Times called it "an inclusive, unblinkered variation of patriotism."

Ideal for Classroom and Home

Designed to spark questions and engage students, particularly in third through fifth grade, this picture book serves as an excellent educational resource. The sweeping panoramic artwork combined with text rich in historical allusion makes it perfect for discussions about American history, diversity, and national identity. Teachers and parents will find it valuable for exploring complex themes of revolution, progress, and possibility with young readers.

About the Creators

From a father-son team comes a gorgeous picture book that "pays tribute to the variety of America as well as to its promise--in Christopher Myers's words, 'the question mark of it.'" (Washington Post) "An inclusive, unblinkered variation of patriotism." (New York Times)

With sweeping panoramic paintings and text rich with historical allusion, this stunning picture book features passionate writings and vivid portraits of political Americans, from Shawnee chief Tecumseh to Abraham Lincoln to Jimi Hendrix. This is a book to share at home or in the classroom, sure to spark questions and engage students, especially in third through fifth grade.

New York Times bestselling author Walter Dean Myers and Caldecott Honor artist Christopher Myers celebrate the freedom dream that is America: our struggles, our ideals, and our hope that we can live up to them. What is it to be an American? To live in a strange and beautiful land of complexity, with a tumultuous history of epic proportions, among the people who were here first, who came after, who will come tomorrow.

Over the centuries, from a blank canvas of mountains, plains, and canyons, the American landscape has been richly carved by revolution, progress, and possibility. Yet its story is still being written.

With graceful, lyrical prose and evocative paintings, Newbery Honor author Walter Dean Myers and Coretta Scott King Honor artist Christopher Myers, the father-son team who created Harlem, pay tribute to the spirit and soul that is America.