I have so many wonderful memories of reading to my children over the years. I am especially fond of the books we read every Holiday Season. The books sit in a large (HUGE) basket in the family room. Divided into categories…Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving. Just waiting to be read again and again each year. Surveying the family we have come up with our Top 11 Thanksgiving Book Favorites.
We hope you will enjoy reading them to your family!
Top 11 Thanksgiving Books
In my opinion, Clyde Bulla is one of the all-time best biography authors for children. We own many of his books and what is more important we read them again and again. Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims is for middle readers and is a book about friendship, yes it’s about the first Thanksgiving but more importantly, it is about the complex friendship between two different people groups and how the fellowship of men triumphs.
If You Were at the First Thanksgiving is chocked full of accurate information about what life was like in early America. The illustrations by Bert Dodson are charming and filled with interesting details. Teach your children about the real Thanksgiving we celebrate each year with this informative picture book.
The board book you want to get for your youngest children is My First Thanksgiving by Tomie dePaola. We own a really old copy and it is still around and we still love it!
Plymouth in the Words of the Founders is actually a well-written visitor guide that can stand on its own. You don’t have to be in Plymouth Massachusetts to benefit from the fascinating information in this book. I think this book is currently out of print but there are used copies available on Amazon! It is worth the search for this one.
Across the Wide Dark Sea: The Mayflower Journey by Jean Van Leeuwen is an absolute gem and will captivate the attention of the entire family!
Molly’s Pilgrim by Barbara Cohn is a story about a young immigrant girl from Russia and how she finds comfort in the Thanksgiving story. This is for middle readers and is an inspirational story about how a third-grade girl is a modern-day pilgrim to America. Well written!
Both Samuel Eaton’s Day and Sarah Morton’s Day are about a day in the life of a pilgrim boy and girl. What makes these books so special is the stunning photography and costuming. Read these charming books to let your very own boys and girls know what life would have been like for them if they lived with the pilgrims in Plymouth Massachusetts.
One of Plymouth Plantations’ fine publications, The Thanksgiving Primer will tell you absolutely everything you want to know about the very first Thanksgiving and then some! A resource book you don’t want to live without.
The Pilgrims First Thanksgiving is a classic! I love this story and have so many fond memories of snuggling with my kids near Thanksgiving reading this book. When my children and I were thinking about why we loved this book so much we couldn’t put it into words. Even if we can’t figure out why we love this story we just do! Maybe, your family will too!
Some kids just want the facts. Don’t Know Much About the Pilgrims is just that, all about the facts. My daughter with autism loved this book for that reason! If you have a fact-checker then you just might want to check this book out yourself.
I’ve saved my favorite for the last. Simply put, I love this book, and now that my children are almost grown I read it by myself every year. A kind of simple tradition that brings me much joy. The illustrations in The Thanksgiving Story by Helen Sewell are charming but the story by Alice Dalgliesh is beautiful. You get a real sense of the time period as well as how meaningful the day was to those weary pilgrims who had actually lived to see the day of this celebration. I highly recommend this book to you and your family! Check out Alice Dalgliesh’s other books HERE!
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YOUR TURN…
What are your favorite Thanksgiving books?
Blessings,
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Good choices. Happy Thanksgiving.
That means a lot coming from a retired teacher!! Thank you for commenting!
So many great books, thanks!
Hope you and your family enjoy reading together!