There aren’t too many Veteran’s Day picture books. You could read a book about a particular veteran, but this book is the rare one that honors veterans as a group.

Demarest tells the stories of Arlington Cemeteries. It includes the big stories–JFK’s eternal flame, the Tomb of the Unknowns, Robert E. Lee’s memorial–but I love that he writes about the tiny, everyday stories–mowing the lawn, planting flags before Memorial Day.

The paintings are beautiful, but the book is much too wordy for a read aloud. Probably the best way to share it with a child is to read it in advance, choose one or two stories to read, and then look at all the pictures and read the selected bits.

[booknet booknumber=9781596435179]

Arlington: The Story of Our Nation’s Cemetery by Chris Demarest. Roaring Brook Press: 2010.