Customer Reviews

1,003 Great Things About America

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I really, really wanted to like this book. I was expecting a humorous compilation of things which make these United States the greatest nation on the face of the earth. There is some of that. The book starts off with a paean to American-grown oranges (they are more orange than oranges grown elsewhere).

Then on page 4 we are treated to this great "thing": "You'll always remember your senior prom, especially if you weren't invited." Huh? This does not compute.

On page 61 we are informed that "Reading scores for kids can't possibly get lower." Well, yes they can. But how is that a great thing about America.

I also found several factual errors. For example, on page 20 the authors write "Even the District of Columbia has representatives to Congress." No, DC does not have representatives, DC has a nonvoting delegate in the House. Maybe this is splitting hairs, but the residents of DC thinks it matters.

Going through this book left a sour test in my mouth. There are so many great things about the USA, the authors could have done better.

I am not sure if this "1003 great things" can be called a book. When I bought the book, I thought the content could be some stories about American history, cultures and traditions, something which I long to understand deeply, as a foreigner. But all there is in the book is a bunch of meaningless sentences. I have learnt nothing at all from this book.
To speak about particulars in this book, I find that most things the author mentioned are not "great things about America" at all.
"Kids get lots of attention." Surely this is true for America, but this is the same for almost every other country. "There's always a place in America to go on vacation" "we get to vote" every sentence mentioned is true for the majority of countries on this planet. so what's so great about America, judging from these sentences?
and I am almost piqued by the trivias:"A trip to Disney World is every American child's birthright" "the mouth of the presidents' faces on Mount Rushmore are 18 feet high" &c. I never know what's good to know that a child's birthright of going to Disney Land or the height of the mouth of Presidents on Mount Rushmore. Rubbish.
the other extremity besides providing too many trivias is, little information on many things. "Julia Child could only have been born in the United States" -who's Julia Child? what's her accomplishments and uniqueness? I believe many people who were not reared up in America(like me) don't know this person. Take another example:"Naturally, the smile button was designed here"-if I have not known the history of computer science in Carnegie Mellon University, I shall never understand the story behind this sentence.( people at School of Computer Science at CMU was the first to use smiley icons decades ago) the story of smiley icon is a great story and should have at least one whole page allocated for it.but there's only ONE sentence to summarise it all. GEE... the author probably know something great, and unqiue about America, but too short sentences on too many things only aroused my dread for this book.