Books about Thanksgiving
It’s that time of the year again to gather with your loved ones for the American tradition of Thanksgiving. This is a list of books about the history behind the holiday or fictional works with a Thanksgiving theme. All books are grouped for adults, teenagers/young adults, and children and can be borrowed from the Roslindale Library.
Adults
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
By Nathaniel Philbrick
From the perilous ocean crossing to the shared bounty of the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrim settlement of New England has become enshrined as our most sacred national myth. Yet, as author Philbrick reveals, the true story of the Pilgrims is much more than the well-known tale of piety and sacrifice; it is a 55-year epic. The Mayflower’s religious refugees arrived in Plymouth Harbor during a period of crisis for Native Americans, as disease spread by European fishermen devastated their populations. Initially, the two groups maintained a fragile working relationship. But within decades, New England erupted into King Philip’s War, a savage conflict that nearly wiped out colonists and natives alike, and forever altered the face of the fledgling colonies and the country that would grow from them. Philbrick has fashioned a fresh portrait of the dawn of American history–dominated right from the start by issues of race, violence, and religion.
Plymouth
By James W. Baker
Plymouth is best known as the Pilgrim landing place, but history did not stop when the dishes were cleared away from the first Thanksgiving. The reader will see vanished landmarks, such as the Samoset House and the Mayflower Inn, the Cornish and Burton schools, and the Leyden Street Casino. From the world’s largest rope manufactory (Plymouth Cordage) to Uncle George’s famous woolly horse, from Water Street’s ancient wharves and chandleries to the storm of 1898, and from Pres. Warren G. Harding’s tercentenary visit to Richard Nixon’s welcome of the Mayflower II in 1957, the best of the town’s visual history is gathered in Plymouth.
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States
By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million Native people who once inhabited this land. The centuries-long genocidal program of the US settler-colonial regimen has largely been omitted from history. Now, for the first time, acclaimed historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz offers a history of the United States told from the perspective of Indigenous peoples and reveals how Native Americans, for centuries, actively resisted expansion of the US empire.
The Ghost at the Table
By Suzanne Bern
When Frances arranges to host Thanksgiving at her idyllic New England farmhouse, she envisions a happy family reunion, one that will include the sisters’ long-estranged father. Cynthia, however, doesn’t understand how Frances can ignore the past their father’s presence revives, a past that includes suspicions about their mother’s death twenty-five years earlier.
Thanksgiving
By Janet Evanovich
When Megan Murphy discovered a floppy-eared rabbit gnawing on the hem of her skirt, she meant to give its careless owner a piece of her mind, but Dr. Patrick Hunter was too attractive to stay mad at for long. Soon the two are making Thanksgiving dinner for their families.
The Longest Trail: Writings on American Indian History, Culture, and Politics
By Alvin Josephy
Alvin Josephy Jr.’s groundbreaking, popular books and essays advocated for a fair and true historical assessment of Native Americans, and set the course for modern Native American studies. This collection, which includes magazine articles, speeches, a white paper, and introductions and chapters of books, gives a generous and reasoned view of five hundred years of Indian history in North America from first settlements in the East to the long trek of the Nez Perce Indians in the Northwest. The essays deal with the origins of still unresolved troubles with treaties and territories to fishing and land rights, and who should own archeological finds, as well as the ideologies that underpin our Indian policy. Taken together the pieces give a revelatory introduction to American Indian history, a history that continues both to fascinate and inform.
Want Not
By Jonathan Miles
On Thanksgiving Day a freegan couple living off the grid in Manhattan, a once prominent linguist struggling with midlife, and a New Jersey debt-collection magnate with a second chance at getting things right randomly and briefly collide as the weight of their desires ultimately undoes each of them, leaving them to pick up the pieces from what’s left behind.
What’s Cooking (DVD)
What happens when families come together for Thanksgiving? Almost anything! Tale of four very different families, as they cook up some tasty holiday surprises: love betrayal and even a few outrageous secrets! And, ultimately, discover the astonishing power love has to reconnect us all
Teens/Young Adults
Thanksgiving: The True Story
By Penny Colman
In her signature narrative nonfiction style, Penny Colman paints a fascinating picture of this cherished American holiday. She examines numerous Thanksgiving claims which were antecedents to the national holiday we celebrate today, raises the turkey question–does everyone eat turkey on Thanksgiving?–and shows Sarah Josepha Hale’s instrumental role in establishing the holiday. Get ready to delve into the rich past of Thanksgiving in an enlightening history that uncovers the true story.
The Mayflower and the Pilgrims’ New World
By Nathaniel Philbrick
After a journey across the Atlantic, the Mayflower’s passengers were saved from destruction with the help of the natives of the Plymouth region. For fifty years, peace was maintained as Pilgrims and Natives worked together. But that trust was broken with the next generation of leaders, and conflict erupted that nearly wiped out English and natives alike.
Pilgrims: A Nonfiction Companion to Thanksgiving on Thursday
By Mary Pope Osbourne
What was it like to be a passenger on the Mayflower? How many people survived the first harsh winter in the New World? How did Pilgrim children spend their days? Find out the answers to these questions and more in this Magic Tree House Research Guide: Pilgrims. Includes fun facts from Jack and Annie, fantastic photos and illustrations, and a guide to doing further research.
King Philip’s War: The Conflict Over New England
By Daniel Mandell
Chronicles the seventeenth-century war that killed more than ten percent of the Native Americans and English colonists living in the region of New England, discussing the events that led to the conflict, as well as its legacy.
Squanto: A Warrior’s Tale (DVD)
Native American Squanto is kidnapped from America and taken to England to be put on display as a savage. He escapes and when he returns home he brings peace among Pilgrims and a tribe, thus bringing the first Thanksgiving.
Infamous: An It Girl Novel (Ebook)
By Cecily Von Ziegesar
During Thanksgiving break, Waverly students experience changes in their relationships with one another and with new acquaintances as most travel home, but Tinsley and Callie, still upset about Easy’s expulsion, join Jennifer in New York City.
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything your American History Textbook Got Wrong
By James Loewen
Criticizes the way history is presented in current textbooks and suggests a fresh and more accurate approach to teaching American history, including discussions about Thanksgiving.
Children
The Thanksgiving Story
By Anne Dalgliesh
A Pilgrim family’s struggle to survive in their harsh new homeland culminates in a Thanksgiving feast.
Arthur’s Thanksgiving
By Marc Tolon Brown
Arthur finds his role as director of the Thanksgiving play a difficult one, especially since no one will agree to play the turkey.
My First Thanksgiving
By Tomie DaPaola
Introduces in simple text some of the family activities associated with the celebration of Thanksgiving.
Nickommoh! A Thanksgiving Celebration
By Jackie French Koller
Describes a typical Narragansett Nickommoh, or harvest celebration, as it has been performed since before the arrival of the first Pilgrims in New England.
Crafts for Thanksgiving
By Kathy Ross
Even young children can make the easy projects in these books, using materials that are readily available. Colorful step-by-step illustrations accompany each craft.
Rivka’s First Thanksgiving
By Elsa Rael
Having heard about Thanksgiving in school, nine-year-old Rivka tries to convince her immigrant family and her rabbi that it is a holiday for all Americans, Jews and non-Jews alike.
Over the River and Through the Wood: The New England Boy’s Song About Thanksgiving Day
By Lydia Marie Child
The horse is ready, the air is bracing, and everyone is bundled into the sleigh. So let the wind blow and the snow start to fall! This family is off to Grandfather’s house for a delicious feast. Matt Tavares illuminates the original text of Lydia Maria Child’s verse about Thanksgiving Day.
Gracias, The Thanksgiving Turkey
By Joy Cowley
Trouble ensues when Papa gets Miguel a turkey to fatten up for Thanksgiving and Miguel develops an attachment to it.
Wampanoag
By Barbara Gray-Kanatiiosh
An introduction to the history, social structure, customs, and present life of the Wampanoag Indians.
Turkey Trouble on the National Mall
By Ron Roll
KC and Marshall convince the President of the United States to pardon more than one turkey for Thanksgiving, but all 117 of them are stolen off the National Mall
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