Pete the Cat: The First Thanksgiving by Kimberly and James Dean
Rating: 5 stars
Just look at the cover. Pete's a pilgrim. A tall black hat sits atop his usual cool face, and a stiff white collar is tucked under his chin. The image makes me crack a smile, even right now at 5:36, early in the morning before my children wake up.
Pete is nervous about being in his class's Thanksgiving play. He shows and tells, with the help of his classmates, why we celebrate Thanksgiving. It's actually a really good explanation for small kids! The lift-the-flaps addition is a nice touch to keep kids more interested in finding out the story behind the holiday.
First, Pete and his feline friends sit in a boat and wait a looooong time to arrive at the New World; after sixty-five days, they spot land. They build houses, but the first winter is long and hard. "In the Spring, they had to decide whether to give up and go back to England or keep trying."
Enter the Native Americans, who help them "keep trying." They show the Pilgrims how to plant food native to the area. By fall, the Pilgrims have plenty of food, and they want to have a feast to share with their Native American friends to celebrate that friendship.
The last two pages of the book show Pete and his family at their Thanksgiving table, with thought bubbles leading up to what they each are thankful for. His mom is thankful for her family, Bob is thankful for his skateboard, Pete is thankful for the Pilgrims who came to the New World.
The book ends with a question prompting your child to dip into that important place of gratitude: "What are you thankful for?"
Thanksgiving With Me by Margaret Willey, illustrated by Lloyd Bloom
Rating: 3.5 stars
Stockings, tree skirts, lights and holiday wrapping paper already overwhelm me. We are a few steps into November, but stores are already throwing Christmas at me. What about Thanksgiving? I want to yell in some effort to fight back.
Thanksgiving is a much simpler holiday; no one is making millions on it. Everyone defines it a little differently; my definition involves family. Years ago when my parents were first divorced and I was thousands of miles away at Seattle University, I found new ways to avoid returning home for Thanksgiving. The "in between" holidays, as my sister and I called the years in between our childhood family that was now gone and the families we'd one day make on our own, were going to be tough. They were but, thankfully, they are over.
Author Margaret Willey's definition of Thanksgiving must be similar to mine.
In Thanksgiving With Me, she writes of a mother and daughter waiting, not so patiently, for the girl's beloved uncles to arrive and take over the house with joyful chaos. Willey provides a nice rhyme that lets the mother introduce each of her brothers to the reader, and tells of Thanksgivings past where they ate like wolves and lions and bears. A feast is required for these hungry men!
Best of all, after dinner, the mother promises her daughter that the "kitchen will quake / the oven will roar / the music will flow / from the window to door!" Her father will play his banjo and they will dance all evening. Their Thanksgiving promises to be delicious, heart-warming, and downright fun.
Finally, the girl looks out her window and her wait is over. Her uncles--the life of the party--are here!
This is a sweet book about childhood impatience to see loved ones. It and a few others are helping us get in the mood for the next holiday--we like to take it one holiday at a time around here and at least attempt to live in the moment while Target unpacks their tinsel!
I was going to write about Balloons Over Broadway last night, after returning from my sister's house for a grand Thanksgiving meal. With apple pie in my belly and wine in my brain, I figured I'd wax poetic about this book, about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, on the very day of the parade. Perfect, right?
Life stepped in a very funny way...as it has a tendency to do.
We left my sister's house around 8, and the blue-eyed kids (that'd be Kiefer and Lorelei) stayed awake during the ride home. My fellow hazel-eyed kid (Ben!) had that oh-my-god-his-neck-is-going-to-hurt! stance and was completely zonked. Hmmm. It's a good holiday when the kids fall asleep in the back on the way home, I think. But then there are those details: How can I get him to get inside, go to the bathroom, change into pajamas without waking up?
I succeeded (with the help of my husband, thank you to him), and my night ended with the chance to gaze at one of our sleeping children, cute when awake but angelic when asleep. A very appropriate end to a day for giving thanks.
Lorelei and I read this book as her brothers slept in their rooms. I promised to find a movie "on the computer" in the morning to show her what we'd read about.
This is a great nonfiction account of Tony Sarg, the inventor of those huge balloons that float and bob down Broadway during Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The book starts with his childhood--I love when books do this as my kids (hopefully) realize that great men and women start out as creative little tykes--and quickly takes a turn to New York City, where Sarg makes old-school marionettes for children. Macy's soon invites him to make one of their still-fantastic window holiday displays. And then, Macy's decides to hold a parade for their mostly-immigrant workforce, to recreate the music and dancing--a street carnival--that they missed in the countries they had left. They employed Sarg, and the first parade was a huge success in 1924.
After the balloons were eased under the El, they ended in front of Macy's,
at Tony's Wondertown windows. It was a parade New Yorkers would never forget!
And, in pure American tradition, they had to make each year bigger and better, right?
At first, animals from the zoo were used in the parade. But then--here's a shocker--kids started to get a little scared by the lions and tigers and bears (oh my). To replace the animals, Sarg starts to work on his idea of enormous puppets. At first he was inspired by an Indonesian rod puppet in his toy collection and created heavy creatures, but they didn't satisfy him. He had to figure out a way to create something like a marionette but with the controls below and the puppet high, something that would rise up high enough so that lots of people could see them--not just the lucky few in the first row.
Helium was the answer!
And so--you guessed it--after a bunch of thinking and creating and trials and errors, he was finally satisfied with a huge balloon-like puppet that bobbed and nodded its way through the super-crowded streets of the city. Like those we still see today, like in yesterday's 82nd parade.
In all honesty, this morning I forgot my promise to show Lorelei a video of the parade in New York City. But as our family headed over to Reston for lunch, we saw--GASP!--big balloons like those in the book! With our very own eyes! Bobbing and floating, held up by strings! The kids were SO excited and, as you can tell by the sudden burst of exclamation marks, I was as well. How exciting to have something we read about right in front of us. It was really cool. I did get a picture of one of the big ol' balloons, but I assure you this clip from youtube is better (I love how Spiderman seems to crawl up from the street), and fun to share with your child when you check this book out.
And I highly recommend that you do check out this book. The illustrations are top-notch and the story is really interesting and inspirational. A smile to Tony Sarg, who had a dream in his head and worked on it until it became a reality.
Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jane Chapman
Rating: 3.5 stars
I have a soft spot in my heart for these Bear books by Karma Wilson. Bear Snores On is the book that created this book-crazy mindset that we're all still in; I memorized the whole book after reading it to Lorelei every night when she was a newborn. Amazingly, that same copy of the book is still in tact and sits in Kiefer's book basket in his room.
I am always eager to check out a new book in the Bear series--there are eight in all--and grabbed this book on the "New Books" shelf in our library about a month ago.
I was disappointed when the first page had Bear's words: "I am bored, bored, bored." What?! Bored? That's a bad word in our house. If you say it twice, you have the opportunity to clean something...because if you can't find something to do (or read!), then I'll help you find something to do.
But besides the fact that Karma Wilson uses the dreaded B-word, it's a cute book. Bear is bored so he decides to make a feast for his friends. But his cupboards are empty. Luckily the usual suspects appear at his cave and all have food to share. To each one, Bear says "Thanks!" The group ends up sharing a big meal together, smiling and chewing and laughing, just as I hope you are doing this Thursday.
(Though if a bear is at your table...I think you're in trouble.)
Splat wants to cheer up his buddy, Seymour, because Seymour is sick. So he decides to make a Thank You Book, to thank Seymour for the many things he's done for Splat over the years of their friendship. His aim is to make Seymour smile. That's it, that's all.
The examples are cute and specific: Thanks for encouraging me to try out for the school play when I was scared. Thanks for rescuing me when I got stuck in a tree. Thanks for sneaking in a flashlight to my room so I could read my book under the covers.
In the end, of course, Seymour is smiling.
We've done a few Get Well Books in our house, for friends who are sick. Lorelei and Ben will think of things that cheer them up--sometimes just pictures of the sun and rainbows, other times photos of them laughing. And just today was Ben's teacher's birthday, so I encouraged all the parents to send in home-made, heart-warming notes and messages to her as a little surprise. There is nothing like the rambling thoughts of a 4 year old: "I love her because she plays with me and also helps me clean up the toys in the classroom and gives me snack when Mrs Cameron isn't there and lets me have more juice." Praise the days before run-on sentences exist in these little minds!
A thank you book is definitely a great idea for this time of year, to challenge kids to think of those things for which they are thankful. And, with this thinking, to keep "being thankful" in the forefront of their little minds. I'd love to see the books Lorelei and Ben would create for each other...
Anyway, we say thanks and make people smile a bunch but we could and should do it even more. Because what's life all about besides making sure the people you love feel appreciated and loved, and seeing their big smiles?
This is our first book with Splat the Cat, but we already want more of him! It was definitely a good introduction, sweet and silly, cute and meaningful. That makes a great book, according to us.
One is a Feast for a Mouse: A Thanksgiving Tale by Judy Cox, illustrated by Jeffrey Ebbeler
Rating: 4 stars
After his people eat a gigantic Thanksgiving feast and roll themselves to the sofa before cleaning up, Mouse decides to take a chance and get himself a Thanksgiving feast. There is so much to eat!
Mouse starts to grab things... but just ONE of everything, since he's so small. After each item he takes, he says, "One is a feast for me." As you can see from the cover, he gathers a bunch of things--way too many--and his initial decision to balance everything on the initial pea is a (funny to watch but) pretty bad idea. He's doing okay until...
Dum-de-dum-dum...
Cat spots him!
Of course everything goes flying and Mouse decides his life is worth more than his feast. He makes a run for it, back to his hidey-hole in the family's clock. He gets there safely, and ends up being satisfied with the single pea that he brings back home.
"Give thanks! One is a feast for me!" he says.
And there, at the table's edge, he met Cat!
I have to tell you: I appreciate Mouse being so gracious and not thinking at all about that which he left behind. I laud his ability to focus on the positive: a pea, rather than nothing. My kids didn't bat an eye; it's me reading into this reading more than those in my lap. But I know there are kids out there who have to walk away from toys and feasts and situations that, once they get a taste of, are hard to let go. Maybe it's the quiet-ness of Mouse that is most surprising--I think that most of these departures are filled with a bit o' whining and maybe, if I'm lucky, a small tantrum.
And Mouse is here to teach us (yup, us grown-ups, too) that very important lesson of appreciating what we have, rather than looking around and being sad about what we have NOT. One of those lessons that we have to learn and relearn. And then learn again. Oh--and then once more!
But 'tis the season for this lesson: give thanks for what we have, joyfully. Even if it is just one pea--make a feast out of it.
The First Thanksgiving: A Lift-the-Flap Book by Kathryn Lynn Davis
Rating: 5 cooperative stars
My blog entries have been a bit long lately, so I'm going to keep this short and sweet, just like this book for the littlest of little readers.
This is the best Thanksgiving book I've found that explains the holiday in simple, understandable (and rhyming!) words. The story focuses on the arrival of the Pilgrims, and the cooperation between them and the Native Americans who welcomed them--how the Native Americans taught the Pilgrims how to survive in the New World. And then, to celebrate their new friendship, they had a big feast together.
These are the people who showed them how
To fish and hunt and sow and plow.
That's it, not much more to it, except for the ever-popular lifting of flaps that kids (even 5- or 6-year olds) love. This silly little addition actually serves a purpose: to pull little kids into books, to get them interested, to get them to sit and listen a little while longer. And the images hiding under these flaps are pretty darn cute--my favorite is when the empty fishing lines turn into a line with a nice-sized catch.
This is a very cute for all those out there looking for a book for their grandchild or child's first or second Thanksgiving...
P.S. I realize that on the cover of the book the author is "Nancy Davis" and I've written Kathryn Lynn Davis, as I have found it many times online. I'm confused, too...!
Turk and Runt: A Thanksgiving Comedy by Lisa Wheeler, illustrated by Frank Ansley
Rating: 4.5 stars
This is one of the funniest children's books I have ever read! I found myself chuckling out loud at the line ahead of the one I was reading to Lorelei and Ben. The thing is, I think this might be a 4-year old minimum, because you have to at least understand that the turkey you eat on Thanksgiving is the same turkey that says gobble, gobble at the zoo. I'm not sure Lorelei gets that, and I know Ben doesn't, and I'm fine with not pointing that out today. Maybe tomorrow.
But if your kids DO know that turkeys are animals and we gobble them up (unless you're a vegetarian, which this book might make your kids), then they would find this book hilarious! Turk and Runt are two brothers in a turkey family. Turk is the prized brother--big, muscly, fast, gorgeous, and ignorant of the fact that he might become some one's dinner. Runt is the forgotten brother--little, scrawny, ugly, and aware of the fact that his brother is in high demand. Turk is determined to be selected by each family who drives up to the farm, and his parents naively parade him around and show him off. Runt pulls of stunts to make Turk look undesirable and inedible, successfully saving him from becoming some one's meal. But at the end a scrawny old lady looks for a scrawny little chicken--Runt! Turk finally clues in to the dangers of Thanksgiving and saves his little brother. The book ends with Christmas season--people pulling into the farm looking for turkeys for that holiday meal find four snow-turkeys, safe under their cold disguise.
I'm not doing this book justice. Check it out and see for yourself--and tell me what age of kids laughs the loudest!
Pete the Cat: The First Thanksgiving by Kimberly and James Dean
