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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The Thanksgiving Book I'm So Glad I Found

Last year, I requested every children's book our library system owned that seemed even marginally related to Thanksgiving.  I weeded out those with anti-Pilgrim agendas, photos from 1973, and way too much text.  


When it was all said and done I had a list of seven books that were worth reading to my kids (now ages 1-5).  Yet, I still felt something was missing.  Our list included books with great art, books with lyrical rhyme, books with perky rhythms, but nothing that clearly and thoroughly built a framework of exactly who the Pilgrims were, where and why they had traveled, what their daily life was like and how all of that culminated in the first Thanksgiving celebration.

The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern has filled in that gap.  The text is very simple in style, with 5-8 short sentences per page.  The illustrations are simple and traditional.  To merely glance at it on the book shelf it would not, perhaps, stand out.

However, its simple text and simple pictures thoroughly and systematically relay the story of the Pilgrim's journey, hardships and struggles, achievements, and ultimately their celebration.

The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)The author is clearly writing for a preschool audience when she describes the Mayflower as being "as big as two trucks."   One of my favorite aspects of the text is its focus on what the life of a Pilgrim child would have been like during each phase of the Pilgrim story:  no toys or space to run around on the Mayflower, having to sleep on the floor and wear the same clothes every day without enough water for washing; once on land, running on the beach feeling the sand in their toes, sleeping in beds that fit under the adults' beds during the day, shooing birds away from the cornfield, and turning a roast on a spit all day.

My children connected to the story because of the many kid-oriented details.  The thoroughness of this book has built their background knowledge, creating the scaffolding they needed to understand and appreciate the allusions in the more artistic and lyrical Thanksgiving picture books.

The only way this book could be better is if it made more clear the central role of God in the lives of the Pilgrims.  There is certainly mention of their religious beliefs, prayer, and observing the Sabbath, but not a clear sense of the way in which their faith in God shaped and influenced every aspect of their lives.

I am glad I bought this book--and glad I opted for the more expensive library binding--as I expect to be enjoying this book with my children for years to come.