With rhyming text and colorful artwork, author Harriet Ziefert and illustrator Gustaf Miller chronicle the annual Fourth of July parade in the small town of Chatham in this picture-book for younger children. The narrative describes the various marchers and floats that pass by - Miss Eelgrass's mermaid float is the town favorite - and the book concludes with a plane writing 'Happy 4th' in the sky...

Although I wouldn't describe Hats Off for the Fourth of July! as a particularly memorable or outstanding picture-book, it's serviceable enough, and with its rhyming text would no doubt make an entertaining read-aloud for a 4th of July story-time. It doesn't address the meaning or history of the holiday, but rather, one of the time-honored traditions associated with it, in many small towns across America. This year (2020) it looks like that tradition has been put on hold in many places, which is a shame, but we can only live in hope for nest year. Recommended to picture-book readers looking for Fourth of July tales for younger children. ( )

In Hats Off for the Fourth of July!, an unnamed narrator watches as the town parade goes by celebrating Independence Day with music, costumes, floats, and more.

This is a relatively simple book, with a couple of lines of rhyming text per page (a total of four lines per spread). Ziefert does not use the most basic of language (i.e., this is more advanced than "See Spot run"), but she does stick to fairly easy words for a young audience. For that reason, I really liked using this book with my toddler class so that they could better understand the concept of a parade (something we had talked about more abstractly before). After we read the book, the children were excited to march through the school waving a flag to patriotic music for our own parade of sorts.

The illustrations in this book are not my most favorite, to say the least. There's a characteristic to them that makes them appear mostly flat and with odd angles that make the people look they like are really awkward positions, especially relative to what they are supposed to be doing (for instance, a man on the sidewalk watching the parade go by appears to be sitting on an invisible chair rather than jumping up with joy). Nevertheless, the illustrations do convey the text of the story, presenting cowboys on horseback, baton twirlers, etc. passing by an excited (albeit small) crowd. Little details litter the page with the tiny mishaps of any parade - a dog getting into the street, an ice cream falling from a tiny bystander's hands, etc.

Despite not liking the illustrations much, I did enjoy this book overall and thought it did a fine job portraying a celebratory parade. While the parade takes place on the Fourth of July, there isn't really anything here describing that holiday so if you are looking for a primer on the story of American independence, this isn't it. But it could be a good supplement in any classroom or home library to further discussions about the holiday. ( )

A parade is happening on the Fourth of July. Everybody in town goes to the parade to watch the bands. ( )

This is a good book about The Fourth of July. It would be good to teach people about the meaning of Fourth of July.