While the rest of the UK may be going along like normal, Thanksgiving is
coming up in our household and the Thanksgiving books are coming out for the
kids, our boys aged 6 and 4.
I picked up a great new one while back in California in October,
Thank You, Sarah. It tells the story about how activist Sarah Hale lobbied
multiple presidents to make Thanksgiving an official national holiday until
finally winning over President Abraham Lincoln.
The Story of Thanksgiving is a board book that my four year old is just
about outgrown. Still, it does a good job of entertaining them and talking about
the Mayflower voyage.
Happy Thanksgiving, Biscuit! is another one that the boys are pretty much
grown out of, but it made it another year. It’s part of the nice Biscuit series
of books, a small yellow dog and the little girl who owns him. In this one, they
get ready for the arrival of the girl’s grandparents for Thanksgiving dinner.
It’s a flap book, with things that get revealed on each page when you lift the
big flap.
It’s a bittersweet one for me to read, because my in-laws used to come over
in just this way for dinner at our house here in the UK, and I was reading this
book back then. But my father-in-law died about three years ago, so while the
book still has both grandparents coming, very sadly, we do not. I wish it were
still like the book.
The First Thanksgiving is another tale of the Mayflower voyage and the
pilgrims first year in America. This one has a nice mix of pictures and good
information for the younger reader.
Finally,
Richard Scarry’s The First Thanksgiving of Low Leaf Worm is a great one.
Like the Biscuit book, it’s a flap book you’d think was meant for the
preschooler. But it’s actually got a lot of information, including a nice
illustrated timeline at the back, which works well for older kids and even me!
