I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.”
The United States will celebrate Presidents’ Day as a federal holiday on Monday.
The third Monday of February is officially known as Washington’s Birthday, in honor of our first president George Washington who was born on Feb. 22, 1732.
However, the federal holiday received it’s unofficial name from our 37th president, Richard Nixon.
One of our other major presidents was also born in February so it seems fitting to expand the holiday. Our sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln, was born on Feb. 12, 1809.
My favorite ways to honor the presidents is to read about them.
This is my newest addition to my collection of children’s books about our nation’s past presidents:
Thomas Jefferson and the Mammoth Hunt: The True Story of the Quest for America’s Biggest Bones by Carrie Clickard, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter—published in 2019—picture book
Here are the rest of the books in my collection:
Face To Face With Mount Rushmore by Jean L.S. Patrick (a South Dakota author), illustrated by Patrick Faricy—2008—picture book
Presidential Politics by the Numbers by Mary Hertz Scarbrough (a South Dakota author)—2016—early chapter book
Woodrow, the White House Mouse, written and illustrated by Peter W. Barnes and Cheryl Shaw Barnes—1998—picture book—imaginative way of describing the White House and the job of the President
Farmer George Plants a Nation by Peggy Thomas, paintings by Layne Johnson—2008—picture book
George Washington’s Teeth by Deborah Chandra and Madeleine Comora, pictures by Brock Cole—2003—picture book
Worst of Friends: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and the True Story of an American Feud, by Suzanne Tripp Jurmain, illustrations by Larry Day—2011—picture book
Teddy Roosevelt: Young Rough Rider (Childhood of Famous Americans series) by Edd Winfield Parks, illustrated by Gray Morrow—first published in 1953—middle grade
Theodore Roosevelt (History Maker Bios series) by Gwenyth Swain—2005—early chapter book
Theodore by Frank Keating, paintings by Mike Wimmer—2006—picture book
To Dare Mighty Things: The Life of Theodore Roosevelt by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by C.F. Payne—2013—picture book
I haven’t divided these into fiction and non-fiction because even most of the ones that have been told as historical fiction still provide facts and make the presidents’ lives feel real. Many of the books offer factual back matter, too.
Most of us commemorate the presidents once a year. But my state, South Dakota, celebrates the presidents in artistic ways year-round.
First, South Dakota is the home of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial sculpture featuring Washington and Lincoln, as well as our third president, Thomas Jefferson, and our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt.
Actually, this sculpture wasn’t necessarily celebrating the men, as such, but was to be a personification of the United States’ “history and the ideals.” I learned this in Face to Face With Mount Rushmore by South Dakota author Jean L.S. Patrick. (See above.)
