Celebrate Thanksgiving: With Turkey, Family, and Counting Blessings

by Deborah Heiligman

Thanksgiving is the original American holiday. When the Pilgrims sat down to give thanks for the hard-won bounty of their new world, they continued a Native American tradition that would become a focal point in the calendar of all generations of Americans to come. The author relates this holiday to the harvest festivals celebrated by thankful believers of many faiths all over the globe. The book's stunning pictures show the celebration in its historical and cultural aspects, and the back matter contains a delicious Thanksgiving recipe, a glossary, and a useful list of holiday references and resources. Dr. Elizabeth Pleck gives readers, parents, and teachers an historical and cultural background to this unique American tradition in her informative note. National Geographic supports K-12 educators with ELA Common Core Resources. Visit www.natgeoed.org/commoncore for more information.

Genres: Thanksgiving, Holiday, Picture Books, Nonfiction, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

First published October 10, 2006

About the author

Deborah Heiligman has been writing for children since she worked at Scholastic News soon after college. Since then she has written more than thirty books for children and teens. Her books include picture books, both fiction and nonfiction, and young adult nonfiction and fiction. Some titles: Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith, a National Book Award finalist; The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos, a Cook Prize Winner and Orbis Pictus honor; Intentions, a Sydney Taylor Award winner, and a picture book series about Tinka the dog. Her latest book is Vincent and Theo: The van Gogh Brothers. For more information please visit www.DeborahHeiligman.com

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deborah Heiligman's Celebrate Thanksgiving : With Turkey, Family and Counting Blessings is generally a decent but simple, basic junior level introduction to American Thanksgiving traditions (a bit too USA oriented perhaps, but since Celebrate Thanksgiving: With Turkey, Family and Counting Blessings is primarily meant to be focussing on American Thanksgiving and just American Thanksgiving, this is rather to be expected and not really all that much of an issue to and for me, although I do wish that the book title were Celebrate American Thanksgiving and not Celebrate Thanksgiving, as indeed the title does in a way make us as readers presume that we will be reading about Thanksgiving celebrations in general and not primarily and for the most part about how the holiday is celebrated and observed in the United States of America).

Now while the details on how American Thanksgiving has been celebrated in the past and how it is celebrated in the present are interesting and presented in an engagingly readable manner, for me, what makes Celebrate Thanksgiving: With Turkey, Family and Counting Blessings so special, and in fact and indeed a four star reading experience is that Deborah Heiligman for one points out that calling the 1621 Plymouth Colony feasting and celebrations the "First" American Thanksgiving is a major misnomer (since Native American tribes had been celebrating the harvest and engaging in thanksgiving types of ceremonies long long before the colonisation of the so called New World by the Europeans) and that for two, she also does not shy away from pointing out that for many Native Americans, Thanksgiving (as an official USA holiday) is often NOT considered a time for celebration but more a time for mourning (a time for reflecting on the past and that colonisation more often than not had horrible consequences for American Indians, from their lands being taken away to both cultural and actual genocide).

Highly and warmly recommended is Celebrate Thanksgiving: With Turkey, Family and Counting Blessings, with Deborah Heiligman's informative supplemental information, but especially the timeline, glossary and suggestions for further reading being appreciated added bonuses (in particular since the list of suggested books for further study and perusal is both annotated and also sports asterisks for tomes geared mostly towards children).

[Shamilah Gillani · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Holidays Around the World: Celebrate Thanksgiving: With Turkey, Family, and Counting Blessings” by Deborah Heiligman is a National Geographic nonfiction book that introduces children to a major American holiday, Thanksgiving. The book goes into details about how Thanksgiving came to be a major American holiday by going through the story of the Pilgrims and the Native Americans. Traditions and customs such as turkeys, cranberry sauce, families, gratefulness, volunteering, parades, and feasts are discussed. The book shows how many families, regardless of their culture, celebrate Thanksgiving by being grateful and appreciating all that they have. I would read this book in November so my students could learn the significance of Thanksgiving and the traditions and customs that go along with it. We would also discuss Native Americans and how they were removed from the only place they called home. As an activity, I would have my class write down all the things they are appreciative for and how they can help others on Thanksgiving Day. The author, Deborah Heiligman, lives near the venue of the New York City Thanksgiving Day Parade and watches it from her window. She researched how different people celebrate Thanksgiving and pictured real families in her book to provide authenticity.

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book in the Holidays Around the World series written by Deborah Heiligman. It is a National Geographic book. I thought it gave a fair historical perspective of this holiday. There are many pictures of people from across the states celebrating Thanksgiving. The large photos and text are great for the younger set. I do feel my 5 yr old will appreciate this book much more in a couple years. There are a lot of facts, glossary and a short essay by the author in the back of the book. There is even a recipe for Cranberry and Peach preserves.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess it’s better than nothing to say “the history of what happened between European settlers and Native Americans in our country is a sad one” but the rest of the page is written in passive voice and then a couple pages later says “some of our families have come from other countries.” “Some”? The book has a presumptive tone about who “we” is. Not the book I’m looking for.

[Hannah Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanksgiving is widely celebrated. It is a time to give thanks and have a meal with the family. What I found interesting is that the U.S. President gets to choose one Turkey's life to be spared. Schools all over the country have a Thanksgiving meal before Thanksgiving break.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5** Doesn't mince on the history, but also very appropriate for young kids; depicts some variety of modern-day celebrations, but feels a little dated in the photographs.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book talks about the traditions we see around the Thanksgiving holiday today. I believe this falls under the nonfiction category because it is sponsored by National Geographic, even though it is a book and not a magazine. Throughout the book, there are photographs of real people rather than just illustrations. We see farmers working on their wheat field, children dressing up like the pilgrims, we see Indian, and we see people in traditional ceremonies, plus many more. We see a little girl with her Grandpa in the airport as we travel to see family for this holiday. This book demonstrates the importance of family on this holiday. We spend the day cooking and giving thanks, surrounded by the people we love. At the end of the day we are full but we are happy because it is always a good day in the end, and National Geographic accurately depicts that throughout this book.

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first European thanksgiving celebrated in North America was in St. Augustine Florida in 1565 almost 100 years before the Pilgrims "first" Thanksgiving in 1621. Will someone ever get this right?