More and more these days, Thanksgiving seems almost forgotten. We go from Halloween straight into Christmas. It’s as if in today’s world, fewer and fewer people see things that they are thankful for. What has happened to Thanksgiving?
While every day we should give thanks to God, and every day is blessing, I still want my children to remember Thanksgiving and to see that it isn’t just about turkey and pumpkin pie. It’s about giving thanks. Taking a little extra time to celebrate sharing, family, and community. Through the month of November, we always do a small unit study on Thanksgiving and read several books to help show them what Thanksgiving is really all about.
Here are our 10 Favorite Thanksgiving Books:
My Thanksgiving Prayer
Author: Crystal Bowman
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Age Range: 2-5
Price:$6.99
This oversized die-cut board book is such a wonderful book for little ones. It features a child thanking and praising God for the big and small joys of life, and filled with adorable illustrations. The rhyme is catchy and fun and both my boys loved this book! While it’s perfect for the first years, it’s definitely a book you’ll find yourself pulling out time and time again.
The Berenstain Bears:Thanksgiving Blessings
Author: Mike Berenstain
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Age Range: 4-8
Price:$4.99
If you are a fan of The Berenstain Bears, then you are going to love riding along with the family to Gran’s and Gramp’s on Thanksgiving Day. Filled with all the wonderful illustrations we know and love, Brother and Sister learn all about the thinks that they can be thankful for…including faith, family, and the huge feast that’s waiting for them at the end.
Mary’s First Thanksgiving: An Inspirational Story Of Gratefulness
Author: Kathy-jo Wargin
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Age Range: 4-7
Price:$6.99
Sometimes it’s easy to take for granted just how blessed we are. In Mary’s First Thanksgiving we read of how a modern Pilgrim girl and her family make the difficult transition from their home in Ireland to America. Throughout the story of the first Thanksgiving, she starts to recognize her blessings as her family tells her the story of the Pilgrams that came to America. This book is filled with beautiful illustrations that bring the story to life and one that quickly became a family tradition to read.
My Give Thanks Bible
Author: Crystal Bowman
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Age Range: 2-5
Price:$6.99
Thanskgiving is a time when we gather around the table with family and friends and say what we are thanksful for.My Give Thanks Bible is filled with sixteen very simple stores that are designed to help show chidlren how people in the Bible were thanksful for God’s great blessings, and reminds us that we should be thankful for all the blessings in our lives.
Thankful
Author: Eileen Spinelli
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Age Range: 4-8
Price:$16.99
Thankful, by bestselling and award-winning children’s author Eileen Spinelli, combines charming rhymes and whimsical illustrations to convey the importance of being thankful for everyday blessings. Like the gardener thankful for every green sprout, and the fireman, for putting the fire out, readers are encouraged to be thankful for the many blessings they find in their lives. Spinelli exhibits her endearing storytelling with this engaging poem, reminding children how blessed and special they are. Meant to be read aloud, this heartwarming picture book will be a treasured keepsake for parents and children alike.
Give Thanks to the Lord
Author: Karma Wilson
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Age Range: 4-8
Price:$6.99
Celebrate the season in this heartwarming story that references Psalm 92 in tender rhyme from award-winning author Karma Wilson. Told from the point of view of one young member of an extended family, Give Thanks to the Lord celebrates joy of all kinds, from the arrival of distant relatives to a cozy house already filled with merriment, to apple cider and the delicious smells of roasting turkey and baking pie. And just when your mouth is watering, sit down and join a thankful child in prayer, praising God for “food and fun and family, all the wonderful things I see.”
Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Age Range: 5-8
Price:$7.99
From the author of Speak and Fever, 1793, comes the never-before-told tale of Sarah Josepha Hale, the extraordinary “lady editor” who made Thanksgiving a national holiday!
Thanksgiving might have started with a jubilant feast on Plymouth’s shore. But by the 1800s America’s observance was waning. None of the presidents nor Congress sought to revive the holiday. And so one invincible “lady editor” name Sarah Hale took it upon herself to rewrite the recipe for Thanksgiving as we know it today. This is an inspirational, historical, all-out boisterous tale about perseverance and belief: In 1863 Hale’s thirty-five years of petitioning and orations got Abraham Lincoln thinking. He signed the Thanksgiving Proclamation that very year, declaring it a national holiday. This story is a tribute to Hale, her fellow campaigners, and to the amendable government that affords citizens the power to make the world a better place!
The Thanksgiving Story
Author: Alice Dalgliesh
Publisher: Alladin
Age Range: 5-8
Price:$5.12
In this festive Caldecott Honor–winning picture book, Alice Dalgiesh brings to life the origin of the Thanksgiving holiday for readers of all ages.
Giles, Constance and Damaris Hopkins are all passengers aboard the crowded Mayflower, journeying to the New World to start a new life. Things get a little more cramped when their baby brother Oceanus is born during the passage. However, when they arrive, there are even worse challenges to face as the Pilgrims are subjected to hunger, cold, and sickness that put their small colony in great danger. With the help of the Native Americans though, they might just be able to survive their first year in this strange land—and have a November harvest to celebrate for generations!
‘Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving
Author: Dav Pilkey
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
Age Range: 3-5
Price:$5.90
The incomparable Dav Pilkey adapts Clement Moore’s classic Christmas poem to tell his wacky Thanksgiving tale. The day before Thanksgiving, eight boys and girls take a field trip to a turkey farm. They have fun playing with eight exuberant turkeys but are shocked to learn that Farmer Mack Nuggett plans to kill all the turkeys for Thanksgiving dinners. So the children decide to smuggle all the turkeys home, and all their Thanksgiving dinners become vegetarian this year. The turkeys’ lives are saved!
I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie
Author: Alison Jackson
Publisher: Puffin Books
Age Range: 2-5
Price:$6.99
I know an old lady who swallowed a pie, a Thanksgiving pie, which was really too dry.
And with that the feast begins! After the pie the old lady swallows a whole squash, all of the salad, and the entire turkey! As Mother and Father watch in shock, the two children are delighted to see the old lady growing fatter and fatter. And, in the end, the old lady makes a surprising and humorous contribution to the holiday festivities.
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