Did Someone Say Pie? Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin Pie by Jill Esbaum

HAVE YOU PICKED YOUR PUMPKIN?

Whether you "pick" your pumpkin from your own backyard, the local pumpkin patch, or from the display at your favorite grocery store, that jolly orange orb is THE symbol of fall, a fine fruit which nurtured the founding fathers' families, which as our beloved Jack-o'-lantern inherited the English tradition of scary, carved vegetable lanterns, and a versatile vegetable that appears as a staple of our Thanksgiving table.

Jill Esbaum's Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pie (Picture the Seasons) (National Geographic Kids) takes the young reader from the spring day when those rounded pumpkin seeds go into the ground through the first sprouting, the vines which leaf out in their characteristic curlicues, the gorgeous pumpkin flowers that bloom in summer, and the tiny green balls that increase rapidly into the giant globes we know and love.

THE PUMPKIN IS A KIND OF SQUASH.

THEY CAN BE GREEN, RED, TAN, YELLOW, WHITE, OR EVEN BLUE.

THERE ARE TALL PUMPKINS, SHORT PUMPKINS, SMOOTH OR BUMPY PUMPKINS.

WEE ONES ONLY INCHES WIDE, OR GIANTS YOU CAN SIT INSIDE.

Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pie (Picture the Seasons) is filled with National Geographic's trademark full-color photographs of pumpkins--pumpkins growing, pumpkins harvested, pumpkins carved in many ways, and the delicious foods prepared from the pumpkin's flesh and its delectable seeds, even pumpkins carved into actual boats!

In easy-to-read minimal text, the author even shows the annual Jack-o'-lantern makers how to prepare the seeds as a snack or dry them for planting themselves for a showy landscaping plant with a golden bonus, not to mention fodder for animals or the useful composting material that Jacks past their prime provide for gardens. The book ends with a poignant photo of a pumpkin patch receiving its blanket of winter snow, showing that the traditional pumpkin is indeed a plant for all seasons.

Thankful: The First Thanksgiving by Nancy Davis

THIS IS THE SHIP THAT SAILED THE SEA...

How to introduce our Thanksgiving traditions to the very youngest among us?

The historical story is a complex tale, full of human hope, failures, political maneuverings, religious fervor and prejudices, and ironic historical luck (Squanto appearing, speaking fluent English, to save the immigrants from their ignorance of survival skills in the New World, for example).

But little ones need a simple story, and Nancy Davis's The First Thanksgiving: A Lift-the-Flap Book (Little, Brown, 2010) is a good starting place. With rounded figures in a limited autumn palette set against bright white board pages, in simple verse the story is told of a group of hopeful immigrants seeking a better life, having difficulties, helped by the old settlers led by Squanto, and celebrating with a big outdoor party for themselves and their friends. With sturdy flaps to provide a bit of anticipation for young fingers to explore, Davis' text tells the old, old story well.

GRATEFUL FOR THE NEW HOME SO FAR AWAY...
THE PILGRIMS CELEBRATED THE FIRST THANKSGIVING DAY.

Children's Literature says "In addition to the obvious historical lesson about the Pilgrims' settlement of the Massachusetts colony, this book can be expanded to lessons on cooperation, sharing, and helping our neighbors."

Thankful: The Very First Thanksgiving Day by Rhonda Gowler Greene

This is the food, gathered and blessed,
the corn and sweet berries, and wild turkey dressed,
Shared on the very first Thanksgiving Day.

Beginning at the heart of the Thanksgiving story, Rhonda Greene's The Very First Thanksgiving Day (Aladdin), utilizing the familiar "house that Jack built" verse form, clearly signals that this rhyming account is aimed at young children. Working closely in tandem with artist Susan Gaber, whose acrylic paintings of youngsters involved in the Pilgrim story glow with energy and light, this retelling has much to offer the picture book audience.

Greene uses an engaging stratagem to tell the oft-told tale, beginning, like Jack's house, with the end of the story and working backward, through the harvest, the planting with the aid of the Indians, the hunger and sickness of the first winter, the long voyage, and at last the colonists' hopeful departure from their own land, leaving behind everything except their hope:

This is the land where it all began.
The land where a brave group made ready their plan
To travel the ocean that never would end,
That sometimes was foe and sometimes was friend....

Gaber's skillful illustrations, in full-page and double-page spreads, flesh out the simple verse, telling the historic and dramatic story visually with admirable force. And from this beginning in the old-country harbor, author Greene proceeds to reverse the action, taking the reader again back to the harvest celebration in a recapitulation of the feast of Thanksgiving which the reader can now appreciate fully.

Not far from the houses, built in straight rows,
That stood in the hot sun and harsh winter snows
And sheltered the Pilgrims who farmed the new land,
Who steadfastly labored and toiled by hand.

Who learned from the Indians, skillful and strong,
Who knew how to live through the winters so long.
And ate of the food, gathered and blessed,
The corn and sweet berries, the wild turkey dressed,

Shared on the very first Thanksgiving Day.

Dressed in its colorful, inexpensive paperback edition, The Very First Thanksgiving Day, with its satisfying cadence and striking illustrations, deserves its own place at the table for Thanksgiving reading.

Talkin' Up Turkey Day: Thank You, Sarah by Laurie Halse Anderson

You think you know everything about Thanksgiving, don't you?...

How the Native Americans saved the Pilgrims from starving...

How the Pilgrims held a big feast to celebrate and say thank you: turkey, pumpkin pie, cranberries--the works.

Well, listen up. I have a news flash....

WE ALMOST LOST. . . THANKSGIVING!

Think of it! No turkey and dressing! No weekday regional gridiron rivalries on TV! No l-o-o-o-ng holiday weekend in November! No Aunt Lorena's-caramel-pumpkin marshmallow-surprise.... . Oh, well, you can see what a sad loss some of that would be.

And it almost was lost, had it not been for one woman--Sarah Hale. In her time the celebration of Thanksgiving had become a lackluster thing, honored vaguely and then only in the New England states.

More and more, people ignored the holiday.

Thanksgiving was in trouble.

It needed... A SUPERHERO!

No, not that kind of superhero. Not a caped and masked SuperPilgrim with a giant P on his chest. Not a giant cleated Pigskin Man. Not even Cornucopia Man. And definitely not TURKEY DUDE.

Thanksgiving needed Sarah Hale.

Sarah had the right stuff. Although she was petite and ladylike, she was made of steel. While raising five children with one hand, with the other she fought for many good causes--from playgrounds to girls' schools to the abolition of slavery. She wrote poetry, novels, children's stories, even "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and became the first woman magazine editor, publishing Longfellow and Poe, BUT. . .

When folks started to ignore Thanksgiving, well,
that just curdled her gravy.

She picked up her PEN!

The pen IS mightier than the sword. Sarah was a writer, so she wrote articles for newspapers and magazines, letters to senators and governors, and even wrote her best letter to none other than President Zachary Taylor himself. But "Old Rough and Ready" was not ready. She waited and then wrote President Millard Fillmore (WHO?), but he was too engaged in securing his place in history. She wrote President Franklin Pierce. Too busy redrafting the Ostend Manifesto. Sarah wrote President Buchanan, but it seems "he had other things (abolition, secession, states rights) on his mind."

But Sarah never relented. Asking that the fourth Thursday in November be made a national holiday, she tried the new guy, the newly elected President Abraham Lincoln, arguing that being grateful together would bring the divided country together. And then...

LINCOLN SAID YES!

It took Sarah Hale thirty-eight years, thousands of letters, and countless bottles of ink, but she did it. That bold, brave, stubborn, and smart lady saved Thanksgiving...for all of us.

Thank you, Sarah.

Author Laurie Halse Anderson brings her Newbery-winning historical skills to bear on this true story of the woman who almost single-handedly saved what many consider our best-loved civil observance. Filled with fresh humor and historical detail, her Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving tells a story as true to the national character as is the original Pilgrim and Indians story, in a style that will grab the attention of children grown blase' about Thanksgiving traditions. Matt Faulkner's illustrations are hilariously over the top, as when he shows a sobbing linebacker, a sorrowful Squanto, a pouting Pilgrim lad, a wistful Wampanoag lass, a deflated dinosaur parade balloon, an anguished football fan with his useless remote in hand, and a flock of rejoicing turkeys as the television screen reads "THANKSGIVING CANCELLED. NO FOOTBALL TODAY!."

A worldly wordsmith herself, Sarah Hale would doubtless be pleased with this telling of her biggest story.

T is for Thankful: P Is For Pilgrim by Carol Crane

Across the Atlantic Ocean
A lone ship on a vast sea.
Ablaze with a new hope,
All praying to be free.

Carol Crane's P Is for Pilgrim: A Thanksgiving Alphabet (Sleeping Bear Alphabets) begins this strikingly illustrated alphabet-in-verse book, one of the beautifully designed titles in the Sleeping Bear Alphabets series (listed here), with the arresting verbal image of that tiny ship amidst the vast Atlantic. Artist Helen Urban's striking paintings, nostalgically idealized as they are, give young readers an idea of the life of young colonists in the first days of Plimouth Plantation.

Crane draws upon later aspects of American life in this alphabet book, loosely linking Feast, Harvest, Mayflower and Pumpkins, Squanto, Tom Turkeys, and Wampanoags with other symbolic national icons as the Bill of Rights and Individual Rights.

For a more historically authentic account, see Diane Shore's gloriously illustrated This Is the Feast, Laura Melmed's equally beautiful This First Thanksgiving Day: A Counting Story or Joseph Bruchac's incomparable Squanto's Journey: The Story of the First Thanksgiving, reviewed here.

Ben Was Right! T Is for Turkey by Tanya Lee Stone

Old Ben Franklin was on to something when he nominated the turkey as our national symbol.

A modern slang synonym for "clueless loser," the turkey gets none of the respect he deserves. Knocked out of contention by his slicker, sleeker, (and more bellicose) relative the bald eagle, the American turkey has proven his staying power far beyond that of that famous raptor. Wild, hardy, elusive but sociable among his kind, he has remained a survivor for over 400 years who, despite his tastiness, has steadfastly refused to go extinct while sharing the continent with his human predators.

Adaptable and resilient, the American wild turkey now lives comfortably close to us non-natives, even (if news reports are to be believed) chasing down Massachusetts matrons unloading groceries from their minivans in search of a meal of their own.

And truly, we owe the turkey a treat or two. He's lent himself to celebratory meals, countless low-fat deli sandwiches, and endless elementary-school art projects, even subjecting himself to an inglorious worldwide domestication which has made a travesty, albeit toothsome, of his sleek shape, all the while maintaining a robust remnant which refuses to give up its wild ways.

What a bird! What a fine and nuanced symbol for America! Ben was right!

Tanya Stone's celebration of the turkey and all things Thanksgiving, T Is for Turkey (Price Stern Sloan, 2009), puts this fine bird right up there on the title page, along with other proud symbols of our most uplifting national holiday:

A Is for American story,
Our school play will tell.
Some myths we'll set straight;
Other facts you know well.

Stone's engaging alphabet rhymes point out that the Pilgrims dressed in bright as well as dark colors and that the local "Indians," the easternmost dwelling ones, actually called themselves the Wampanoag, or "people of the light," being the first to see the dawn over the Atlantic each day. In her entries for the letters H and L, she gives credit to Sarah Hale and Abraham Lincoln, who saved the local custom of Thanksgiving for the whole country by making it a national holiday. Massasoit, Samoset, and Squanto get their alphabetical due, and Stone doesn't stint that national characteristic which itself enabled that first harvest celebration:

Q is for quit,
Something we'll never do!
We're determined to carve out
A life that is new.

And that legacy, from those early settlers and from that beneficent bird which helped sustain them and us to this day, should fortify us this and every Day of Thanksgiving!

Gobble Gobble Giggles: Turkey Riddles by Katy Hall and Lisa Eisenberg

Why isn't it safe for turkeys to do math?

If they add 5 + 3, they get ATE!

What did the turkeys say when the Pilgrims passed the potatoes?

"No, thanks. We're stuffed!"

Those princesses of puns, the royals of riddledom, Katy Hall and Lisa Eisenberg are the go-to goddesses to turn to whenever an occasion for easy reading levity presents itself, and, after all, what is more lampoon-able than the titillating turkey? And these riddlemeisters for all seasons do not disappoint with their offerings for the Thanksgiving table:

What do you get when you cross a turkey with an octopus?

A Thanksgiving dinner with drumsticks for everyone!

And there are gobbler giggles for everyone in Hall and Eisenberg's Turkey Riddles (Easy-to-Read, Puffin), in this classic-as-green-bean-casserole favorite for the thankful season. Kristin Sorra adds to the spread with enticing full-page illustrations that set off each tasty morsel of holiday humor, leaving those beginning readers with a funnybone, er, well satisfied.

What did the sweet potatoes say to the turkey?

"Here I YAM!"

The First American Cats: Pilgrim Cat by Carol Antoinette Peacock

One breezy September morning in 1620, a stray cat prowled the docks, hunting his breakfast. The cat spied a plump mouse. He pounced--and missed. When the mouse escaped to a ship, the cat followed, landing on the ship's deck.

The ship was called the Mayflower.

While the cat was watching the mouse scampering onto the small vessel, a young girl, Faith Barrett, was watching the cat make its inauspicious boarding of the ship as well, a ship which was to make an auspicious voyage indeed. Faith was waiting with her parents and a large group of passengers sailing that day, and although she was both excited and anxious about the long voyage ahead, she couldn't help being interested in the cat who it appeared would be her fellow traveler.

Throughout the voyage, through storms and sea sickness and fevers, Faith caught glimpses of the cat, apparently eating well from the ship's abundant supply of rodents, and when she could, she slipped the little mouser a bit of dried fish she had saved. And when at last the stormy weather broke and the pale, sickly passengers made their way to the deck for their first chance at sunshine, Faith was overjoyed to see the cat, too, sunning himself on the deck. Happily, she scooped him up in her arms, and the cat purred his welcome right back.

Life ashore in the new colony was hard, and Faith had little food or energy to share with the gray striper, whom she had named Pounce, but as the survivors of the "Great Sickness" greeted their first spring in the New World, the loyal cat had become a member of Faith's family. As Squanto came to teach the people how to plant Indian corn, Pounce followed Faith into the fields, occasionally snatching one of the small fishes intended for fertilizer and eating it greedily from his hiding place beneath Faith's skirts. But Pounce also paid his way, prowling the fields and keeping the mice and birds away from the growing crops as best he could, and as the harvest began, her family was happy to have the accomplished mouser to protect their stores. Pounce grew plump and Faith slept soundly with a happy purring cat beside her each night.

But one day Pounce didn't come home from the fields. She searched everywhere, but no cat came to her call. Days passed and Faith was sad.

Then one day Squanto led some men to the Eel River to fish. Faith and the other girls followed along.

Squanto stopped suddenly. He crouched beside a hollow log. Wordlessly, he beckoned to Faith.

There was Pounce, five tiny kittens snuggled beside her.

"Pounce! Thou art a girl--and a mother as well!" cried Faith.

Gently, Squanto lifted Pounce and the kittens and placed them one by one in Faith's apron.

The cat population of Plimoth Plantation took a great leap forward that day, and when the first harvest thanksgiving rolled around, there were five new, truly American cats to enjoy the leftovers.

Carol Antoinette Peacock's Pilgrim Cat (Albert Whitman Prairie Books), was inspired by her visit to the restored Plimoth Plantation, where her own daughter spotted a "re-enacter cat" among the costumed "Pilgrims" there and asked if there really were Pilgrim cats on the Mayflower. Research showed that there were indeed, and also three historical girls who might have befriended one of them on the voyage. From this idea the composite characters of Faith and her cat Pounce grew into this piece of historical fiction for young readers. Nicely illustrated in Doris Ettinger's gentle realistic style, her engaging text finds a novel way to retell the familiar story of the first Thanksgiving in an appealing and personal way that young animal lovers will remember.