Happy Birthday to the Statue of Liberty

The NYPL reminded me that today is the Statue of Liberty's 125th birthday.  Serendipitously, I picked up a book about this very topic while volunteering yesterday at my daughter's school library: Eve Bunting's A Picnic in October in which a family travels to Liberty Island despite the fall chill for a birthday picnic because "that's what Grandma wants."  But it's not Grandma's birthday - it's Lady Liberty's!  I must confess, I didn't have a chance to read this book carefully, but it's so appropos that I couldn't resist mentioning it.

Another wonderful picture book about the statute is Emma's Poem: The Voice of the Statute of Liberty by Linda Glaser.  A biography of Emma Lazarus, the poet who penned the famous poem that is printed on a plaque at the base of the statute: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," this book can be approached in so many different ways: among them to discuss income inequality (so timely!) and immigration or to introduce the genres of biography and poetry.  We loved this one.