Children's books for Thanksgiving 🦃

Can we read? Special edition: Thanksgiving

“Thanksgiving,” by Marchette Chute, from The Family Read-Aloud Holiday Treasury selected by Alice Low:

I’m glad that I was good today
As good as I was able.
I’m glad to be inside this house
And sitting at this table.

I’m glad that it’s Thanksgiving Day
And all the world is merry,
And I’m glad I have a fork
And that the pie is cherry.

Happy season of Thanksgiving! Thanks for being here with me today.

I want to tell you a story before I begin:

I have been vacationing in Door County, Wisconsin (that’s the “thumb” of the state, if you only know it as vague hand-shape in your mind, or maybe not even then) since I was baby. For many years, my family and I would visit a candy shop in an old one-room school house in Ellison Bay — way, way up there, almost at the tip of the peninsula — run by an old man whom everyone called Uncle Tom, and his wife, Aunt Marge. Despite still visiting Door County every year I haven’t been to the candy shop since I was a girl, and though I remember the darkness inside the school house, and that my sister and I would walk out with literal pounds of taffy, what remains most vivid for me was Uncle Tom himself — an old, white-haired man who told us, every single time we came in, that “gratitude is attitude.”

Gratitude is attitude. It became a kind of shorthand in my family, and if it didn’t always work to curb my sometimes-less-than-desirable behavior (which was limited to my teenage years but only if you extend “teenage years” to age 25), it sunk in nonetheless, and I understood from a young age that the way I think and the way I show up in the world can either be a thank you for all that I have been given — a praise song, a prayer of thanksgiving — or it can be something else, something far less present, something inexcusably unaware.

I loved putting together this special edition and gathering all the wonderful books out there about not only this particular holiday but ones that highlight the idea that gratitude is — very much, in fact — attitude. To that end, some of the titles I reviewed (and mention in my lists) are specifically Thanksgiving books — but I also took a broad view of what a “Thanksgiving book” can be. So while you will see some titles about the holiday itself, you’ll also see some about the spirit of counting our blessings, not just this time of year but all year round.

Don’t forget to take a look at my special edition on Thanksgiving from 2020 — there are some fantastic titles there (Sharing the Bread: An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving Story by Pat Zietlow Miller remains my favorite Thanksgiving title, and my kids wouldn’t let me get through the month of November without reading A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting at least every other day).

Lastly: I am thankful for you, reader.

And: I dedicate this issue to the memory of Uncle Tom.

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Gracias · Thanks by Pat Mora, illustrated by John Parra (2005)

“For the sun that wakes me up so I don’t sleep for years and years and grow a long, white beard, thanks.

For the ladybug that landed on my finger, a little red flying surprise, thanks.

For the foamy waves that chase my sister and me and sometimes dash after us with a fast SPLASH, thanks.”

This Pura Belpré Honor Book isn’t a narrative as much as it is a glimpse into one little boy’s life, spotlighting — in Spanish on the left page and English on the right, and through Parra’s bright acrylic on illustration board images — all the things for which he has to be thankful, right down to the bees that didn’t sting him; to his Abuelita, who always winks and gives him a dollar when no one is looking; to his family, who clapped even when he tripped on the stage in the school play.

The author’s note at the end begins by asking, “What are you thankful for? Your pillow? A dish of macaroni and cheese?” and goes on, “I’m grateful for my home that has plenty of books in it, and for my kitchen where I like to make soups, lemon bread, and chocolate chip cookies.”

None of these things are big things but that is precisely the point — the little things matter, and it is the specificity with which one little boy (and Mora herself) lists his gratitude that makes this book both pleasurable and powerful. Can’t we all make such list? (And if we think we can’t then maybe that’s all the more reason we should.)

If you like this one, check out Apple Cake: A Gratitude by Dawn Casey (listed in my Also highly recommended titles below)