Interactive Classroom Thanksgiving?

Hopped on here to offer elementary school teachers free downloads of The Thanksgiving Dinner Platter and to share an old press release about my children's book. With this early reader, I tried to explain, in an educational and fun way, why we celebrate Thanksgiving and when it became a national holiday. Believe it or not, I even included in the story, a real cornbread recipe just like the one used at that first Thanksgiving. Cool to see that a few teachers have found the book, a fun interactive way, to explain how and why Thanksgiving became a holiday. I was super elated when someone emailed me a Thanksgiving card that was circulating on the internet using the cover of my children's book. If you're an elementary school teacher and want to explore using it in the classroom, please reach out and connect. I will be happy to provide you with a pdf of the book that you can print out.

Here's a link to an old press release that explains what the book is about Thanksgiving Dinner Platter Press Release.

Here's an old review

blogger review of The Thanksgiving Dinner Platter

And of course, you can always check out the reviews that posted online, which have included teachers. amazon link to a few online reviews of The Thanksgiving Dinner Platter

Thanksgiving Card using cover of The Thanksgiving Dinner Platter

Here's a little summary of the Thanksgiving Dinner Platter: It’s 1941, (yes, I thought it would be fun to stage the book then) and President Franklin D. Roosevelt has just made Thanksgiving a national holiday in the United States. Takari ‘s family is coming from near and far to celebrate together. While helping her mother prepare Thanksgiving dinner eight-year-old Takari breaks a platter that belonged to her Japanese grandmother. (I also thought it would be fun to add a diverse and international twist to the storyline.) The platter had been an important part of her father’s family heritage, used traditionally by Takari’s grandmother to serve chestnut rice on the Japanese day of thanksgiving. Angry, her mother shoos her away, telling her to go visit her best friend, Little Sparrow, whose family is Native American. He is making a special cornbread just like the one served at the first Thanksgiving dinner eaten by the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians at Plymouth Plantation. In the process, Takari learns about the history of the holiday and that a similar day of gratitude, when people give thanks for their blessings, exists in many countries including in her father’s homeland, Japan.