Thursday, November 18, 2010

Thanksgiving Books

In addition to One is a Feast For Mouse: A Thanksgiving Tale, Emmy's pick for her favorite Thanksgiving book would have to be A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting illustrated by Diane de Groat. In this story, Mrs. Moose asks Mr. Moose to get her a turkey for Thanksgiving.

"Everyone has turkey for Thanksgiving.
Everyone but us."

With a nuzzle to Mrs. Moose's head, Mr. Moose heads out to find a turkey. He is joined in the hunt by his soon-to-be dinner guests Rabbit, The Goats, Sheep and Porcupine. Turkey is found hiding in his nest with signs discouraging visitors.

Do not disturb! (come back after Thanksgiving.)
AND
No turkey here!

Upon seeing Mr. Moose and his friends, the bird is terrified and tries to run, but is caught by Mr. Moose who smiles a toothy smile and says,

"I hope you don't have other plans
for Thanksgiving, Turkey."

Mrs. Moose is delighted when she sees her guests for Thanksgiving dinner especially Turkey. Mrs. Moose shows everyone where to sit and when a chair is brought from the other room for Turkey he is very much surprised,

"A...a chair?" Turkey stammered.

With a table filled with acorns, alfalfa sprouts, willow bark, cured grasses, wild parsley and pressed leaves, Mrs. Moose is sure that Turkey will find something to his liking. Turkey is just over the moon at the idea that he is sitting AT the table and not ON it. Kudos to Eve Bunting for introducing us to a vegetarian-themed Thanksgiving dinner!!!!


Two more wonderful books for this time of year are Feeling Thankful and In November.

The book Feeling Thankful, written by Shelley Rotner and
Sheila Kelly with photographs by Shelley Rotner, is an invitation to smile and be thankful as it celebrates life and the many things in the world for which people have to be thankful through beautiful photographs of children. This book will inspire your young one to express what he or she is thankful for. It is also a great model of a book that an older child could make on his own or that families could make together.



Feeling Thankful
I'm thankful for me.
For the things that I have and the things that I do.
I'm thankful for all the
people that are special to me:
My family...my friends...and my teachers too.
I'm thankful I have a home and good food to eat.
I'm thankful for the places where I play.
I'm thankful there are birds, butterflies, flowers, and trees.
I'm thankful when I walk in the rain.
I'm thankful for the moon and the morning, when it comes.
I'm thankful for the whole wide world.

In November by Cynthia Rylant illustrated by Jill Kastner is a beautiful book for this time of year. It is a quiet story about nature preparing for winter. The poetic words and rich paintings work well together to create a calm and peaceful transition between seasons.



In November, at winter's gate, the stars are brittle.
The sun is a sometime friend. And the
world has tucked her children in,
with a kiss on their heads, till spring.

And now for the good part!!!!!!!!! A turkey treat!

To make your own, you will need:
one package of cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies (Oreo cookies)
one package of red cinnamon candies
one box of malted milk balls
one package of candy corn
one container of ready-to-spread chocolate frosting

1) Carefully separate the cookie leaving the cream filling on one side. Set cookie half without filling aside.
2) Attach a red cinnamon candy (head) to the malted milk ball (body) with a dab of frosting.
3) Attach the turkey body to the center of the cookie half with cream filling using a dab of chocolate frosting.
4) Spread frosting on the inside of the cookie half that doesn't have filling.
5) Arrange the candy corn on the chocolate frosting with the wide end along the edge (turkey's feathers).
6) Attach the cookie with the turkey's feathers to the cookie with the turkey body using the chocolate frosting.
7) Gobble it up!

Hello Mr. Turkey
(Tune: If You're Happy and You Know It)

Hello, Mr. Turkey - How are you?
Hello, Mr. Turkey - How are you?
With a gobble, gobble, gobble.
And a wobble, wobble, wobble.
Hello, Mr. Turkey - How are you?

Happy Thanksgiving!

2 comments:

  1. We just made turkeys today! What a tasty idea:) We used peanut butter M&Ms instead of malted milk balls and candy corn, and it worked quite well. Thanks for the fun idea, we always look forward to your blog!

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  2. Hi Jamie - Your turkeys sound scrumptious! Thanks for reading our blog!

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