Rhode Island (America the Beautiful Second Series)

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Summary: A lot for young readers to learn about the smallest state
Review: I have been to Rhode Island. This would seem a natural course of event if you parents are both from Connecticut and you go back there to visit relatives, but we always approached the state from the north or the west and never from the east. But when a few years back I had occasion to drive from Boston to see my relatives I went out of my way to take the highway to Providence, although once we got into Rhode Island I immediately took the first opportunity to cut over to Connecticut. Consequently, while I have been in the state of Rhode Island I can not claim to have seen anything, both because we were there less than half an hour and also because it was night time. So reading this volume about "Rhode Island" in the America the Beautiful series tells me what I have missed and suggests that next time I stop and smell the violets (the State flower).

After introducing us in Chapter One to "The Ocean State" (remember, Rhode Island had an almost two century lead on Hawaii when it comes to picking an official state nickname), Sylvia McNair devotes three chapters to the history of the state. Chapter Two, "An Independent Colony" traces the history of the colony where Roger Williams and other refugees from Salem founded their "Lively Experiment" to the eve of the American Revolution, while Chapter Three, "The Young State" goes from 1775 to the Gay Nineties at the end of the 19th-century, and Chapter Four is about the state during "The Twentieth Century."

The geology, animal life, and climate of the state are detailed in Chapter Five, "The Land and Living Things," while Chapter Six, "Here and There in Rhode Island" looks at the major cities and regions. Chapter Seven, "Little Rhody's Government" covers the politics of the state, including all the state symbols from the State bird (Rhode Island red chicken, of course) and the State shell (Quahog). Chapter Eight shows what "Earning a Living" means in Rhode Island, which includes not only manufacturing and fishing, but also the U.S. Navy, which was actually born in Rhode Island.

Chapter Nine looks at "The People of Rhode Island" in terms of hte state's heritage of diversity, while the final chapter is about "Enjoying Leisure Time" in the state, which covers everything from theater to Gravity Games, with museums and yachting in between. Like the other volumes in the series the back of the book has a parallel Time Line of U.S. and Rhode Island state history, several pages of Fast Facts, various places To Find Out More, and an Index. The book is filled with full-color photographs, original maps in several chapters, and a host of sidebars about people, such as Anne Hutchinson and H.P. Lovecraft, places, such as Block Island and the Slater Mill Historic Site, and various things of interest, including a recipe for Quahog Cakes (clam cakes, not the aforementioned "hard shell" State symbol). The result is that McNair provides not only informative look at the state's past, but also some reasons to go and visit the place if you do not happen to live there.