My First Thanksgiving - It Won't Be Re-read
Written: Jul 29 '08 (Updated Jul 30 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Short story, easy to clean pages.
Cons: It's boring and will not hold a childs attention.
The Bottom Line: If you want a good book about Thanksgiving for your child don't buy this book.
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| IrishMa4's Full Review: Tomie De Paola - My First Thanksgiving |
My First Thanksgiving by Tomie dePaola
My First Thanksgiving by Tomie dePaola is a small paperback book with waxy pages, like glossy cardstock only thicker and duller feeling. I don’t know if they are coated with anything but they feel waxy to me when reading it to the children. On a side note Amazon.com lists this as a board book. The one in my possession (for now) is a paper back book with 12 pages.
Thanksgiving is not a subject I see in kids books often. Books about Christmas, Easter, and Halloween are sorely over done when it comes to children’s books in my opinion. Doesn’t mean I don’t buy them though *grin*. Quiet honestly we have more books for children than the library here in our small town. We go to the thrift store every week and the kids get one free book each and I buy at least two books for each of the 5 kids. I love to read and so, thankfully, do they.
My First Thanksgiving is a short book aimed at the 2 to 4 year old age group I’m guessing (it doesn’t say – just says toddlers and young children). Possibly a kindergartner will enjoy sounding out the words and reading it himself but any child older than 5 will become bored and think this book is lame.
It starts out talking about the first Thanksgiving – why they had it and who was there. Then the story moves on to talking about (and showing) a family and how they spend their Thanksgiving Day, including talking about what they were going to eat. It did not include football so I don’t know…
The first page set shows the Pilgrims putting food along a large wooden table. Since they are all wearing hats of some sort I imagine this is outdoors, and the 2 sentences talk about the first Thanksgiving being a time to thank God for their new home. The next page set shows the Indians coming with corn and a sack and has one sentence talking about their friends coming with food. The 3rd page set shows a young girl with her 3 brothers making turkey drawings by tracing their hands and talks about when Thanksgiving is (November) and what they do on that day. The next page set shows the extended family in the kitchen prepping food with one sentence saying there is a lot to do in the kitchen. The next page set shows the food that will be on the table and lists them (Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie and mince pie). The last page set shows the family seated at the table and says ”Just like the Pilgrims, we give thanks for our food and for our being together on Thanksgiving”.
The illustrations are pleasant but a bit bland to my eyes. Speaking of eyes, the eyes on the people in this book are mostly dots with some curved lines thrown in. And to really creep the reader out the people with eyeglasses just have white circles for eyes. Yuck! The colors are somewhat bland and dull, the Pilgrims and Indians are stereotypical; beads and feathers and blankets on the Indians, hats, caps, and large yolks and collars on the Pilgrims. Illustrations in My First Thanksgiving are reminiscent of color book pictures colored using markers. But honestly I can’t get past the creepy eyes!
The modern day family all looks the same. For example the same hair color on everyone, except for the grandparent’s who have grey instead of brown. The trees out side the windows have yellow clumps and orange clumps – not leaves.
While the book is small, easy to read, and even has cleanable pages; I just couldn’t recommend this to anyone. Apparently my children feel the same way as they gave it to me when they cleaned out their bookshelves and told me to bless someone else with this book. So it’s in the suitcase in my bedroom with the outgrown clothing to be donated to charity.
As with any book you read a child, the opportunity is there to discuss the meaning of Thanksgiving to them, their favorite part of the holiday, what things they are thankful for in their life, ways they can befriend people who do things differently then they do: but all those discussions could be had without reading this book.
If you are shopping for books for a young child to talk about Thanksgiving, please move along and skip My First Thanksgiving. It will put you to sleep faster than the turkey will. It hasn’t held my interest or any of my children’s interest. I’m sure there is another book out there that would make a better choice.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
IrishMa4
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Member: Bobbie Jean Knealing
Location: Kenyon, Minnesota
Reviews written: 232
Trusted by: 342 members
About Me:
Avon Independent Sales Rep http://www.youravon.com/bknealing
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