Thank You, Sarah

The pen is mightier than the sword."  

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Emmy and I recently discovered a very persistent woman in history who helped to save Thanksgiving for all Americans - Sarah Josepha Hale.  This discovery was thanks to author Laurie Halse Anderson and her funny and inspirational book Thank You, Sarah The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving.  Anderson has written many children's and young adult books based on American history with an upcoming book in the works about one of her heroes Abigail Adams.  With lively illustrations by Matt Faulkner that often resemble caricatures, the story of Sarah Hale comes to life as a woman who means business.

"Way, way back, when skirts were long and hats were tall, Thanksgiving was fading away.  

Sure, the folks up in New England celebrated it.  They'd roast a turkey and invite 

the relatives when the harvest came in.  But not in the South, not in the West, 

not even in the Middle Atlantic states.  More and more, people ignored the holiday.  

Thanksgiving was in trouble.  It needed...A SUPERHERO!  No, not that kind.  

Thanksgiving needed a real superhero, someone bold and brave and stubborn and smart.  Thanksgiving needed Sarah Hale."  

I love the message that putting pen to paper is a way to create change by getting others to hear your point of view and perhaps persuade them to change their way of thinking.  It took Sarah Hale thirty-eight years and thousands of letters to persuade our top leaders to declare the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving.  Four presidents denied Hale's request, but not Abraham Lincoln.  In the year 1863, President Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday.

If you are interested in reading Hale's letter to President Lincoln, you can find it here. 

And so Emmy and I give thanks this Thanksgiving to Sarah Hale for using her pen to stand up for what she believed in and creating change.  Sarah Hale's life has made a tremendous difference in the culture of our country.  Both Emmy and I have enjoyed getting to know who she was.  These are the facts that Emmy would like everyone to know:
*  She was the first American female magazine editor.  The Ladies' Magazine was where she published fashion, household and educational articles alongside poems and short stories that she wrote as well as some of the most famous authors of her day...Edgar Allan Poe, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Nathaniel Hawthorne to name a few.  She then went on to become editor for the magazine Godey's Lady's Book where she worked for forty years.
* She wrote the popular nursery rhyme Mary Had A Little Lamb in the year 1830 after a lamb followed one of her students to school one day.
* She pushed hard for the education of girls and for women's colleges and helped found Vassar College
* She strongly believed in play and physical education and helped to build playgrounds
* She raised money to preserve and build monuments honoring historical figures and events such as George Washington's Mount Vernon plantation and Bunker Hill in Boston, MA.

We both highly recommend the book Thank You, Sarah as it helped Emmy to realize that children have a great deal of influence.  By writing letters to the head of school, the city council, the mayor and newspaper editors, she can make her opinions heard and perhaps create change.

To give you a little taste of the book, here is Emmy reading the first few pages.  Enjoy!

"

To read our other posts about Thanksgiving click on the following:

Strega Nona's Harvest

Thanksgiving Books

One is a Feast For Mouse

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!

And the winner is....

And the winner is...SARA!

Congratulations, Sara! Emmy is so excited to put the Book Giveaway package into the mail. She LOVES all of the surprises that are included for you and your little ones.

Choosing a name out of a hat was very funny to Emmy. She really wanted to send a book to everyone so plans are already underway for another Book Giveaway! Thanks to all who entered our contest.

Emmy's choice for her favorite Thanksgiving book is One is a Feast for Mouse - A Thanksgiving Tale by Judy Cox with illustrations by Jeffrey Ebbeler. As we all know, our eyes are often bigger than our stomachs when it comes to Thanksgiving dinner and Mouse is no different. When everyone in the house falls asleep after sharing their Thanksgiving feast, Mouse comes out of his hidey-hole in search of leftovers. He spies a "teensy-tiny toothsome green pea all by itself under a plate. Give thanks, he thought. One will be a feast for me." As Mouse makes his way across the table with the delicious pea he sees six leftover cranberries, "I'll just take one, he said to himself. One is a feast for me." and continues across the table balancing the cranberry on top of the pea. This journey across the table allows Mouse to add more things to his stash: an olive, a carrot, a plate of mashed potatoes, gravy in a boat, pumpkin pie and a platter of turkey - all balanced strategically on top of each other. As Mouse nears the edge of the table, he meets CAT! What follows is catastrophe as Mouse tries to keep his loot, run from the cat and get back to his hidey-hole. He manages to escape, but without his Thanksgiving feast. As he sat trembling in his hole, he spotted that teensy-tiny toothsome green pea in the corner. And so the story ends with Mouse gratefully cutting into that luscious green pea. "Give thanks! One is a feast for me!"

As the story unfolds, Emmy is delighted in Mouse's attempts to balance all of the food. She likes Mouse's solution of placing the carrot stick into the hole of the olive to make it easier to carry. Just like Emmy, your little one will chime in when the food items are repeated in a similar style as the story The House That Jack Built.

Click here for the video trailer for the book One is a Feast for Mouse - A Thanksgiving Tale with the soundtrack provided by the illustrator's rockabilly band!

If you LOVE this book as much as Emmy and I, then get ready to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Judy Cox and Jeffrey Ebbeler as they also created the book Cinco De Mouse-o!

Stay tuned for our next Book Giveaway!!!

A Child's Garden

Our new house in the North Shore of Massachusetts comes complete with a beautiful garden! Wonderful for someone like me who really doesn't know much about gardening and just feels appreciative that the yard is vibrant and fragrant. My dad enjoyed gardening and I enjoyed being with him as he dug in the soil and planted the most colorful flowers. My mom and I would usually be pulling weeds while he planted, but that didn't matter. This rich image of being out in nature with my family stays with me to this day.

Nowadays it seems that being out in nature is tougher than it was when I was a child. Perhaps it's the "rush about" mentality that many of us have fallen into where we can't seem to just slow down and embrace what we have in the moment. I fall victim to this way of thinking constantly and struggle with how to maintain a balance of work and family. I know that I want Emmy to experience the wonders in nature as much as possible. I wish for her to have dirt under her fingernails and a multitude of messy treasures in her pockets.

With all of this in mind, it was a complete joy to come across the book, A Child's Garden by Molly Dannemaier, in a small bookstore in New Hampshire. This is a gorgeous piece of work that focuses on how to bring the out-of-doors back into the lives of children. Dannenmaier begins with an explanation of what children really do when they step outside, which is not always what adults think they do or want them to do - think tree climbing and bug digging and hideaways. When our children clamor to go outside, we build swing sets and slides, sign them up for team sports, take them to zoos and adventure parks, but rarely have them explore their own backyard. With beautiful photographs, Dannenmaier shows wonderful examples of the most exquisite backyards and parks throughout the world that will inspire you to shape a part of your yard as a place of delight and interest for your children.



Heading up a national movement for outdoor play is Richard Louv. If you would like to learn more about the importance of being out in nature every day, check out his latest book Last Child in the Woods as well as his website.



Now for the perfect gardening book to share with your child, try How Groundhog's Garden Grew by Lynne Cherry. With lush illustrations, Little Groundhog learns from Squirrel's teachings how to grow his very own garden. With subtle environmental messages such as, when Wren and Praying Mantis strike a deal with Little Groundhog: "If you promise not to harm us with bug spray, we birds and insects will help you with your garden. We will eat the harmful insects that hurt your plants." Cherry teaches us the importance of living in harmony with nature. Ever present in a book by Lynne Cherry, you will find realistic drawings, labels and information galore. Keep this book in mind for the Thanksgiving season as it ends with a grand feast of all the food harvested from Groundhog's garden and shared with his friends.