For years Thanksgiving has left parents and teachers wishing that there were more good books available on the subject. Suddenly, there seems to be a cornucopia of children's books available for every age that will leave you as satisfied as a enormous turkey dinner.
For hor d'oeuvres, there are even books for the youngest listener. Catherine Stock's Thanksgiving Treat is indeed a treat. It combines cozy illustrations, the background of a large warm extended family, a peek at traditions and story as well. The viewpoint character is a small boy who wants to participate in the preparations, but everyone in this busy family gently pushes him away from turkey stuffing, corn-shucking, and wood chopping. Disappointed, the boy sits alone in a swing until his understanding Grandpa enlists his aid in gathering the chestnuts that are the hit of the holiday. Ages 3-6. (Bradbury, $11.95)
Dav Piley's 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving is full of the rhymes and rhythms preschoolers love, the happy outcome pleasing to young elementaries and playful parody that delights older children and adults. This book modeled after the Christmas classic, certainly has the feel of a Thanksgiving classic. The story tells of a bus of children that go to Farmer Mack Nuggett's for a Thanksgiving field trip and suddenly come to understand that their fine feathered friends are soon to be roasted. Quick thinking turns the eight turkeys (with names like Groucho, Wally and Beaver) into Thanksgiving guests instead of feasts and "everyone is thankful/ (The turkeys were most)!" Without missing a beat, Pilkey turns tradition on its head with hysterical irreverence of word and art (which includes a picture of the farmer and his missus in the style of American Gothic ) that will make the whole family giggle. Ages 3-adult (Orchard, $13.95)
For main course, works for more serious readers, Scholastic books produced three books that can make the historical era of Thanksgiving's inception come live for young people. In Sarah Morton's Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl Kate Waters merges talents with photographer Russ Kendall to authentic and dimensionalize 1627 America. Photographed at Plimoth Plantation in a living history museum, the character Sarah, who was nine years old at the time of history presented allows us to view dressing, chores, school, games, and family life. Ages 4-10. (Scholastic, $12.95)
Ann McGovern has written two books in a question-answer format that explains everything children would want to know about colonial life in America in ...If You Sailed on the Mayflower (Scholastic, $2.50) and ...If You Lived In Colonial Times (Scholastic, $2.50) McGovern's research is flawless, her writing tone is well-suited to her child audience and the material she choses to investigate is captivating. She covers everything from baths, to punishments to the first Thanksgiving. Ages 6-10.
Eve Bunting created a new look at Thanksgiving in How Many Days to America? A Caribbean family flees their home to find a place where they will not be oppressed because "we do not think as they do." They take no belongings, just the money that will buy them passage on a small fishing boat. Their boat, like earlier boats nearly three hundred years before, experiences all kinds of traveling difficulties, but at last, they arrive safely on American shores of freedom on Thanksgiving day. They are greeted and taken to share a feast which begins their new life and celebrates the thankfulness for new beginnings. Chalk drawings by Beth Peck are expressive of the emotive levels of all the hardships the immigrants face. Ages 5-10. (Clarion, $14.95)
And for dessert, what about the playful spirit of Thanksgiving? I have applauded Eve Bunting's books as she has supported a great many underdogs, but she champions an altogether new kind of hero in A Turkey for Thanksgiving. When Mr. Moose and his wife decide they'd really like to have a turkey for their Thanksgiving feast, a hunt begins in the woodlands until all the guests hunt for the overweight bird. Turkey's paranoia grows until the surprised and delighted fowl learns that he is to be the honored guest. Illustrations by Diane de Groat create a background warmth with homey detailing while taking full advantage of the humor that Ms. Bunting's text presents. Ages 4-7. (Clarion, $13.95)
The importance of friends gathering to feast is the theme of Crescent Dragonwagon's Alligator Arrived with Apples: A Potluck Alphabet Feast. Two little piggies invite twenty-six animal friends to an unusual, but sumptuous potluck. Each beast, as you might guess, represents a different alphabet letter and so does the food that is shared. The book begins with happy anticipation and two tasty rhymes to herald the fun (and later the traditional, inevitable nap) to come. Sandwiched between are twenty-six delicious tongue-twisting tidbits such as Flamingo who "Found Fabulously Flavored Fresh Figs and Fixed them Flambe." Arguego and Dewey's bright illustrations frolic across pages as we watch friends genuinely enjoying a festival that celebrates not only food, but friendship. Ages 3-7. (Macmillan, $15.95)
Though not strictly a Thanksgiving day book, similar themes and alphabet format are delectably presented in Ann Shelby's Potluck. Themes of friendship, sharing, abundance of entrees, and overeating dominate. It is not only the food that blends in this book, however, but the races and sexes and costumes and joys of each and every celebrant. Irene Trivas' colors are bold and festive to match the occasion and yet she harmonizes the wildness as well as Shelby does in text. Ages 3-6. (Orchard, $14.95)
To make make bold the import of colors of all kinds, Irene Trivas' illustrations. Ages 3-6. (Orchard, $14.95)
Tina and her parents anticipate a familiar traditional family Thanksgiving in Nancy Carlson's A Visit to Grandma's. They discover however that Florida has changed Grandma. She wears flashy clothes, drives a sports car and her condo is covered with palm tree wallpaper. Grandma serves health shakes, dashes to aerobics classes, and Thanksgiving dinner is stone crabs at Monti's Fish and Chips. What Tina and her parents discover, when they suspend their expectations, is that visiting Grandma holds just as much fun and excitement. Nancy Carlson is an illustrator-author who creates well-balanced images in text and illustration. Careful readers will note black and white pictures of the past which stand out against Grandma's flashy new decor and Grandma admits that her store-bought pie doesn't quite measure up to her homemade equivalent. Ages 4-8. (Viking, $13.95)