It's Monday! What are you reading? #18

It's Monday! What are you reading? is the original weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, but is now hosted by Kathryn at Book Date.  It's Monday! What are you reading? - from Picture Books to YA is a kidlit focused meme just like the original and is hosted weekly by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers .  The purpose is the same: to recap what you have read and/or reviewed and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week

Sometimes it feels like Thanksgiving is being pushed away in favor of starting the Christmas season earlier and earlier each year. But I think Thanksgiving should be an important day of our lives - not a day for standing in line to buy big TVs, or the latest devices, but a day to take the time to really appreciate family and friends and all the other blessings in life and to maybe read a few good Thanksgiving books.

This past week, I've read several books about Thanksgiving, both fiction and non-fiction.  Here are a few of them:

Sharing the Bread: An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving Story by Pat Zietlow Miller, illustrated by Jill McElmurry
Schwartz & Wade, 2015, 32 pages (Age 4+)

This is a heart-warming story of a 19th century family preparing their Thanksgiving meal.  The son, the youngest child, introduces us to his family as each person performs their one special task to make it a complete Thanksgiving dinner.  Each task is told in a simple almost sing-song rhyme and the emphasis on sharing carries through the story until at last everyone sits down to dinner. The gouache illustrations are done in a folk art style in earth tones so appropriate for the season.

Thanksgiving at the Tappeltons' by Eileen Spinelli, illustrated by Maryann Cocca-Leffler
HarperCollins, 2015. 32 pages (Age 4+)

This reprint from 1982 (when the family were wolves, not people) is a story of a series of events that cause the Tappleton's Thanksgiving dinner to come up empty - literally.  No turkey, no potatoes, no salad, no pie.  But leave it to Grandma find the humor in the situation in her Thanksgiving grace.  Young readers are guaranteed to laugh when they find out how the Tappletons' finally have their Thanksgiving turkey and all the trimmings. Cocca-Leffler's lighthearted illustrations are a perfect compliment to Spinelli's wonderful tale.

Judy Moody & Stink: The Wishbone Wish by Megan McDonald, illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds 
Candlewick, 2015, 128 pages (Age 6+)

Judy and Stink are excited that they can spend part of Thankgiving at their school's Gobblers-a-Go-Go event before going to Grandma's for dinner.  Judy is sure she will win the Turkey Trot race and provide the turkey she anticipated winning for Thanksgiving dinner.  The siblings train hard for the relay events, but their are bumps along the way - like arguing and a timeout resulting in a peace treaty.  It is nice that for the most part, brother and sister got along and worked together towards their goals - and there weren't even any pouts or resentments to spoil it.  But does Judy win a turkey?  Well…This was a fun book to read and Reynolds's colorful digitally created illustrations add a nice whimsical touch.

The Candy Corn Contest by Patricia Reilly Giff
Yearling, 1982, 2008, 80 pages (Ages 8+)

Richard Best has a lot to be excited about.  He's having a Thanksgiving weekend sleepover for the boys in his class and his teacher is having a candy corn contest - guess how many are in the jar and you win all the candy corn. There's just one problem - Richard is a slow reader and the rules of the contest is one guess per page read in a not-baby book. Richard can't stop thinking about how good that candy corn would tasted, and before he knows it, Richard has eaten 3 pieces of it and when he tries to fix the situation, he accidently sees the correct number of pieces written on the bottom of the jar.  Now, he can't get that out of his head.  And to make his life more complicated, some of the boys Richard invited to his sleepover won't come if they have to sleep next to smelly Matthew, who still wets the bed and doesn't bathe frequently enough.  What's a kid to do about all this?

What am I reading next?

What are you reading?