Sharing the Bread is a simple, rhyming celebration of an old-fashioned Thanksgiving dinner, more accessible for younger children than Sarah Gives Thanks, but set in approximately the same time period.

The book features warm and cheery illustrations, and introduces various members of an extended family as they go about their tasks of preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone has a job to do -- even the baby, which is mostly just to sleep while others work! At the end, the family joins hands and gives thanks for food and family.

I loved the nostalgia evoked here, and the simplicity of the process, but for young children it can also serve as a broad reminder (since a year is a long time for a little one) of what Thanksgiving is all about.

Scrounged From: Our local library

Format: Hardcover
Author: Pat Zietlow Miller
Illustrator: Jill McElmurry
Pages: 32
Content Advisory: None

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While the name "Sarah Josepha Hale" did ring a bell to me when I picked up Sarah Gives Thanks: How Thanksgiving Became a National Holiday, I couldn't have told you much of anything about her. After reading this book, I have a newfound appreciation for this intelligent, enterprising woman and her contributions to our country's development -- beyond just Thanksgiving.

Oftentimes our "first Thanksgiving" stories revolve around the narrative of that first harvest festival celebrated by the Jamestown settlers and Wampanoag tribe. But this biography of Hale focuses on her quest to have Thanksgiving declared a national holiday. While it was a tradition in the early 1800s, it was only celebrated in some regions, and even then on different days. Sarah Hale wrote to every president for decades until finally Abraham Lincoln agreed with her in the midst of the Civil War.

As important as this aspect of the story is, I was even more intrigued by Hale's determination to attain an education (in a round-about way) in the days when women did not go to college. I was also inspired by her marriage and subsequent industrious widowhood, as well as her obvious ability to bring people together through reading, writing, and publishing (which included encouraging women to be more concerned about their minds than their wardrobes). 

Scrounged From: Our local library

Format: Hardcover
Author: Mike Allegra
Illustrator: David Gardner
Pages: 32
Content Advisory: None

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