Fill your Cornucopia with these Thanksgiving Treats
Jennifer Hodges, Media Specialist
Books about Thanksgiving Pre-School-Grade 2 •
Silly Tilly’s Thanksgiving Day by Lillian Hoban. Forgetful Silly Tilly Mole nearly succeeds in ruining her Thanksgiving dinner, but her animal friends come to the rescue with tasty treat.
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Pooh: The Best Thanksgiving Day by A.A. Milne. Pooh and his friends are about to celebrate Thanksgiving for the first time. Everyone's going to bring something to the feast. When Tigger asks Christopher Robin what he can contribute, CR tells him that they can't have Thanksgiving without a turkey, so that's what Tigger should bring. Tigger , thinking that he gets to invite the guest of honor, bounces off to look for a turkey. But every bird to whom he extends an invitation runs off; Tigger is puzzled by this reaction, because, after all, he's just trying to be friendly. Knowing that he can't let his friends down, Tigger arrives at the feast dressed as a turkey. What happens after that gives this sweet and very funny story a satisfying ending for all concerned--readers included!
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Thanksgiving Day by Anne Rockwell. After their teacher, Mrs. Madoff reads a story about the first Thanksgiving, the class acts out the story in a play.
Books about Thanksgiving Kindergarten-Grade 3 •
Don’t Eat Too Much Turkey by Miriam Cohen. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, Jim and his friends in the first grade are busy preparing for a special holiday, painting a mural, writing a play, and creating a giant turkey costume.
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Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message by Chief Jake Swamp. Adapted especially for children by a Mohawk chief who has shared this inspiring vision of Thanksgiving all over the world, these words originated with the Native people of upstate New York and Canada and are based on the belief that the natural world is a precious and rare gift that should be cherished.
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I Am the Turkey by Michele Sobel Spirn. Mark does not look forward to being the turkey in his second grade class's Thanksgiving play, but at the performance he ends up saving the day.
Grades K-3 (continued) •
Little Bear’s Thanksgiving by Janice Little Bear's friends work hard to wake him from his winter sleep so he can eat Thanksgiving dinner at Goldie's house.
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Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving by Laurie Halse Anderson. Relates how Sarah Hale, a magazine editor and author, persuaded President Lincoln to transform Thanksgiving Day into a national holiday.
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The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh. This story follows the Hopkins family from the time they leave England through their difficult voyage on the Mayflower to the first Thanksgiving feast at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Books for Grades 2-4
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Daisy’s Crazy Thanksgiving by Margery Cuyler. Daisy usually spends Thanksgiving helping out in her parents' restaurant. Wanting something different this year, Daisy decides to have her holiday meal with her grandparents. Though her mother warns Daisy to expect a zoo, Daisy is unprepared for the frolicsome encounter.
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Gooney Bird and the Room Mother by Lois Lowry. In November, Gooney Bird's second-grade class begins work on their Thanksgiving pageant, but they still don't have a room mother to provide refreshments.
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Henry and Mudge Under the Yellow Moon by Cynthia Rylant. It's fall! Henry and his big dog Mudge love to walk in the woods to watch the leaves turn colors. They love to dress up for Halloween and listen to spooky stories, and they enjoy sharing Thanksgiving dinner.
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How Many Days to America?: A Thanksgiving Story by Eve Bunting. Refugees from a Caribbean island embark on a dangerous boat trip to America where they have a special reason to celebrate Thanksgiving.
Grades 2-4 (continued) •
It’s Thanksgiving by Jack Prelutsky. Twelve original, humorous poems about Thanksgiving feature the traditional family dinner, the first Thanksgiving, turkey thoughts, Dad's disastrous carving job, and too many turkey leftovers.
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Kit Learns a Lesson: A School Story by Valerie Tripp. In 1934, Kit finds she has hard lessons to learn about the Depression both at home, where she is helping her mother run a boarding house while her father looks for a new job, and at school, where a fight spoils the preparations for the Thanksgiving pageant.
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Lenny and Mel by Erik P. Kraft. Twin brothers Lenny and Mel celebrate holidays in some unusual ways. After eating Thanksgiving turkey for a week, the boys put the remains under Mel's pillow for the Leftover Fairy to exchange for money.
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Millie Cooper, 3B by Charlotte Herman. The frustrations and joys of a third grader as she gets ready for Thanksgiving and prepares an essay on why she is special. Millie's 1946 experiences are not unlike those of contemporary third graders.
Grades 2-4 (continued) •
Molly’s Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen. Molly is an immigrant Jewish girl from Russia. Molly's mother helps her make a Pilgrim doll for a Thanksgiving school assignment, but dresses it as she dressed in Russia before fleeing religious persecution. Molly is at first embarrassed about the doll, but learns there are many kinds of pilgrims.
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Peanut-Butter Pilgrims by Judy Delton. All the Pee Wee Scouts love to celebrate the holidays, but Thanksgiving is not Molly Duff's favorite one. In fact, Thanksgiving is big trouble for Molly.
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Squanto and the First Thanksgiving by Joyce K. Kessel. The Thanksgiving story begins before the pilgrims landed--with an Indian named Squanto. Text and braille book with no pictures.
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The Story of Thanksgiving by Robert Merrill Bartlett. Traces the history and customs of Thanksgiving, from the harvest festivals of the ancient world to American traditions in the twenty-first century. Tells how the Pilgrims spent their first few years in the New World and describes their thanksgiving celebrations with the Wampanoag Indians.
Grades 2-4 (continued) •
Thanksgiving by Alice K. Flanagan. Discusses harvest festivals in other times and places leading to the Pilgrims' and Wampanoag Indians' American Thanksgiving in 1620. Explains why Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. Suggests ways to show thanks on this national holiday.
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Thanksgiving Day Parade Mystery by Marion M. Markham. When twins Kate and Mickey Dixon arrive downtown for the Thanksgiving Day parade, they discover that the entire marching band and the president of the bank have vanished, and the bank has been robbed. They soon figure out that Amos, a lock salesman, is somehow responsible.
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Thanksgiving on Thursday by Mary Pope Osborne. The magic tree house takes Jack and Annie back to the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving celebration with the Wampanoag Indians. Preparing for the feast is harder than Annie and Jack realize and makes them even more thankful for living in modern times.
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Thanksgiving: Stories and Poems edited by Caroline Feller Bauer. "Be thankful for noses on Thanksgiving Day" is just one of the many thoughts in this bountiful book of poems, stories, and even two recipes celebrating the all-American holiday. "The Ballad of the Mayflower" sets the scene of Pilgrims and Indians, "The Thanksgiving Day Parade" sends the giant balloons aloft, and "To Friendship" toasts those near and dear.
Books for Upper Elementary •
Old-fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott. Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, first published this story in St. Nicholas magazine in 1881. It tells of the Thanksgiving dinner that the seven Bassett children prepare when Mrs. Bassett is called away to care for her ailing mother.
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The First Thanksgiving by Lena Barksdale. A warm story of a truly American feast in a truly American home. A little girl who lives in Maine travels by boat to Massachusetts to celebrate Thanksgiving with her grandparents, who took part in the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth forty years before.
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Hoboken Chicken Emergency by D. Manus Pinkwater. Arthur Bobowicz goes to pick up his family's Thanksgiving turkey at the butcher's and finds it's not there because of a mix-up. But resourceful Arthur ends up with a choice chicken--it just happens to weigh 266 pounds and cannot be returned.
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Turkey Monster Thanksgiving by Anne Warren Smith. Fourth grader Katie accidentally invites her teacher over for Thanksgiving dinner, even though Katie, her three-year-old brother, and their dad usually only watch football in their pajamas and eat pizza. The motherless household's cooking is a disaster but everyone still has fun.
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Wild Turkey, Tame Turkey by Dorothy Patent Hinshaw. The turkey that has become a symbol of Thanksgiving is a big, dumb creature, but only as a result of domestication. The wild turkey is an intelligent, cunning, powerful bird whom Benjamin Franklin preferred over the bald eagle as a symbol of our nation. The author examines the history of the native North American turkey and compares it with its domesticated cousin.
Book covers were borrowed from Amazon.com and used for Educational Purposes.
Happy Reading!