Table of Contents
THANKSGIVING STORIES
 |
Alison Jackson’s I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie (Puffin, 2002) is a Thanksgiving take on the cumulative nursery rhyme “I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.” Here the astonishing old lady gulps down a pie, a gallon of cider, a whole roll, a squash, a salad, and the entire turkey, to the awe and alarm of all about her. (Perhaps she’ll die.) For ages 3-8. |
| MakingLearningFun has multidisciplinary activities to accompany I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie, among them a cereal-box food game, instructions for making a toilet-paper-tube Old Lady (with pie), and a recipe for tiny bite-sized pumpkin pies. | |
 |
Eileen Spinelli’s The Perfect Thanksgiving (Square Fish, 2007) is a gift for all families whose Thanksgivings routinely feature underdone potatoes and difficult uncles. There’s a perfect (lace tablecloth, golden turkey) family and a not-so-perfect (smoke alarm) family – but they’re alike in that they love each other. For harried cooks and for ages 4-7. |
 |
In Wendi Silvano’s Turkey Trouble (Two Lions, 2009), Turkey – who doesn’t want to end up as the main dish at Farmer Jake’s Thanksgiving dinner – disguises himself (hilariously) as a horse, cow, pig, sheep, rooster, until he comes up with the brilliant idea of pretending to be a pizza delivery boy. For ages 4-8. |
 |
In Lisa Wheeler’s Turk and Runt (Atheneum Books, 2005), Turk’s parents are thrilled that their son is the biggest, strongest, and most graceful bird on Wishbone Farm. “He’s a dancer,” says Turk’s mother. “He’s an athlete,” says Turk’s father. “He’s a goner,” says little brother Runt. While their parents remain clueless, Runt does his best to protect Turk, and Turk eventually returns the favor. For ages 4-8. |
 |
In Teresa Bateman’s A Plump and Perky Turkey (Two Lions, 2013), Thanksgiving is approaching and the people of Squawk Valley are in dismay because there isn’t a turkey in sight. (“They couldn’t find a turkey/for the feast they planned to eat./It looked like they’d be making do/with bowls of shredded wheat.”) So they come up with a clever plan: they’ll lure a turkey into town by throwing a turkey fair and advertising for a particularly handsome turkey to serve as an artist’s model. For ages 5-8. |
 |
In Eve Bunting’s A Turkey for Thanksgiving (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1995), Mr. and Mrs. Moose have invited all their friends to dinner – but Mrs. Moose, for once, would like to have a real turkey, rather than just a paper turkey decoration. Off Mr. Moose goes to find one – though the upset turkey doesn’t understand that they want him as a guest, not a main course. For ages 5-8. |
 |
In Wende and Harry Devlin’s recently re-issued Cranberry Thanksgiving (Purple House Press, 2012), Maggie and her grandmother live beside a cranberry bog on the New England seacoast. When Maggie invites Uriah Peabody – known as Mr. Whiskers for his enormous beard – to Thanksgiving dinner, her grandmother worries that he’s out to steal the recipe for her famous cranberry bread. The secret recipe is included in the book. For ages 5-8. |
 |
In Barbara Park’s Junie B., First Grader: Turkeys We Have Loved and Eaten (and Other Thankful Stuff) (Random House, 2012) – one of the large and funny Junie B. Jones series – feisty Junie B.’s first-grade class is caught up in the school-wide Thanksgiving Thankful Contest. (Junie B. is not grateful for squash, but she likes biscuits in a tube. Especially when they explode.) I love Junie B. For ages 6-9. |
 |
I love – yes, LOVE – Daniel Pinkwater. In Pinkwater’s Hoboken Chicken Emergency (Aladdin, 2007), Arthur Bobwicz is dispatched to collect his family’s Thanksgiving turkey, and ends up instead with Henrietta, a GIGANTIC and disaster-creating chicken. For ages 6-9. |
| Also see The Amazing Chicken. | |
 |
In Ron Roy’s Mayflower Treasure Hunt (Random House, 2007) – one of the extensive A to Z Mystery series – Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose are spending Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where they explore the Mayflower II, learn a great deal about the ship and the Pilgrims, and tackle a mystery involving a stolen sapphire necklace. A chapter book for ages 6-9. |
 |
Truman Capote’s wonderful “The Thanksgiving Visitor” is included in A Christmas Memory (Modern Library, 1996). The story is narrated by eight-year-old Buddy – butt of the neighborhood bully, red-headed Odd Henderson, who, to his horror, his cousin and best friend, Miss Sook, has invited to Thanksgiving dinner. All ages. |
 |
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s On the Banks of Plum Creek (HarperCollins, 2008) – third in the Little House series – includes an account of Thanksgiving in a sod house in Minnesota. For ages 8-12. |
 |
O. Henry’s Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen – in which the broke Stuffy Pete is treated to a Thanksgiving dinner each year by a mysterious old gentleman – is a short story with a typical Henry twist. |