Beat the Drum: Independence Day Has Come, the third book in Lee Bennett Hopkins's series of holiday anthologies, is an exuberant and colorful tribute to this American celebration.

The picnics, fireworks, parades, and patriotism of July Fourth are reflected in selections from such diverse poets as Carl Sandburg, Lucille Clifton, and Stephen Vincent Benét.

Tomie de Paola's whimsically alive illustrations seem to crash, bang, and whirl off the vibrant red and blue pages, drawing kids into the poems and inviting them to stand up and read this book out loud.

From the dust jacket of the 1993 edition