Thanksgiving

ALL ABOUT THANKSGIVING FOOD

	Aliki’s Corn Is Maize: The Gift of the Indians (HarperCollins, 1986) is a picture-book overview of the science and history of corn, with information on native American customs and festivals and a brief account of the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving. For ages 4-8.
	Also see Charles Micucci’s The Life and Times of Corn (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009); Tomie de Paola’s The Popcorn Book (Holiday House, 1984); and Gail Gibbons’s Corn (Holiday House, 2009).
	By Lucille Recht Penner, Eating the Plates: A Pilgrim Book of Food and Manners (Aladdin, 1997) is a 128-page survey of Pilgrim daily life with an emphasis on food (recipes included; recreate a genuine first Thanksgiving dinner). For ages 7-10.
	American as Pumpkin Pie from Backstory Radio features historian James McWilliams discussing real Thanksgiving foods, religion scholar Anne Blue Wills on the Victorian origins of the modern holiday, and an archaeologist from Colonial Williamsburg on early American diets.
	From the Food Timeline, American Thanksgiving is a history of traditional Thanksgiving foods with period recipes and quotations.
	From Smithsonian magazine, find out What Was on the Menu at the First Thanksgiving?
	From the History Kitchen, Thanksgiving, Lincoln, and Pumpkin Pudding covers Sarah Josepha Hale’s Thanksgiving campaign, Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, the origin of the presidential turkey pardon, and a period recipe for pumpkin pudding.
	From the New Yorker, Adam Gopnik’s The First Served is an interesting essay on the all-American turkey.

ALL KINDS OF PILGRIMS

	Eve Bunting’s How Many Days to America? (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1990) is a modern-day Pilgrim story, as a Caribbean family escapes from political persecution in a fishing boat, and after a dangerous journey, reaches America on Thanksgiving Day. For ages 4-8.
	Using this Discussion Guide to How Many Days to America?, kids explore their ancestors’ ethnic backgrounds.
	Set in the early 20th century, Molly’s Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen (HarperCollins, 2005) is the story of a young Russian Jewish girl, recently arrived in America and struggling for acceptance by her new third-grade classmates. When the class is given an assignment to make a doll based on a Thanksgiving character, Molly does her best – but gets last-minute help from her mother, who makes the doll look like a traditional Russian. Molly’s class makes fun of her at first – but then comes to realize that there are many different kinds of Pilgrims. For ages 6-10.
	Molly’s Pilgrim is a collection of discussion questions and activities to accompany the book.
	Molly’s Pilgrim (1985) is a short (24 minutes) film based on the book, directed by Jeffrey Brown. Available on DVD.
	Also see Immigrants and Refugees.

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