Jew­ish song­writ­ing icon Irv­ing Berlin immi­grat­ed to the Unit­ed States as a child, but was Amer­i­can down to his core. Songs like ​“There’s No Busi­ness Like Show Busi­ness, ​“Alexan­der’s Rag­time Band,” and the ubiq­ui­tous ​“White Christ­mas,” were all Berlin com­po­si­tions. But the song which meant the most to him and for which he refused to take any per­son­al prof­it was ​“God Bless America.”

This rich­ly-col­ored pic­ture biog­ra­phy details Irv­ing Berlin’s younger years as he strug­gled to devel­op his musi­cal tal­ent. The illus­tra­tions make evoca­tive use of shad­ow and light, cre­at­ing a sense of move­ment across the pages. The read­er is drawn into Berlin’s world of New York streets and music-filled rooms.

The text is dense enough to be infor­ma­tive, yet spare enough to keep the atten­tion of young read­ers. This love­ly book is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed for ages 7 to 12.