illustrated by Olga Baumert
Picture Book Biography / Women’s Suffrage / Woman Poet
As a little girl growing up during the Civil War, Katharine Lee Bates grew up to become a poet, professor, and social activist. She not only wrote “America the Beautiful” but gave this anthem to America as a gift. A member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and a suffragist who stood up for a woman’s right to vote and lived to cast her ballot in presidential elections, Katharine believed in the power of words to make a difference. In “America the Beautiful,” her vision of the nation as a great family, united from sea to shining sea, continues to uplift and inspire us all.
O beautiful for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
Timeless books that can be an example that girls or women can accomplish anything they want will always be needed. For Spacious Skies by Nancy Churnin fits impeccably in that category.
This story is carried by the art of Olga Baumert. Her depictions are a mix of impressionistic and post-impressionistic art with hints of Georges Seurat and Claude Monet.
I cannot imagine riding in a wagon up Pikes Peak in Colorado that just blows me away as many times as I have been up that Peak with my dad. The views were astounding so I can see how the inspiring words for America the Beautiful came to Katharine Lee Bates while sitting at the top of Pikes Peak. I can only imagine the scenery back then was even more breathtaking.
For Spacious Skies tells the story of Katharine Lee Bates of how she grew up, recognizing the world around, and wanting to do more. The story depicts perfectly how nature inspired her words of America the Beautiful.
Greatly admire a nonfiction author that includes a timeline for readers to reference. The one thing I would have loved to have seen was the snippets of the earlier versions of America the Beautiful at the back of the book.
For Spacious Skies is a book that all women should read even to their daughters.
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Forgotten Winds 
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to see those amazing sights and then translate that into words? Bates was a gifted writer. Thanks for the review of the book about her.
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You’re welcome! Yes it would.
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