According to Ben Franklin, there are two things in life you can be sure of: death and taxes..
For librarians, these three also remain: counting books, alphabet books, and holiday books.
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Whether they’re franchise—Arthur’s Thanksgiving, Max’s ABC—or independent, you can almost always count on a combination of run-of-the-mill text and tolerable illustrations, or tolerable text and run-of-the-mill illustrations.
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So, does the world really need another Thanksgiving story?
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In cases like This is the Feast, where the book thrives visually and textually, the answer is yes.
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This is the Feast is written in traditional Jack-House style. A great sofa read, the age range is wide; my listeners were 3, 7 and 10. Detailed illustrations interested the older ones, and they all enjoyed the steady cadence of the verse.
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This is the Mayflower, sturdy and strong.
Her sails skim the skies as she journeys along.
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Unlike many pointless Thanksgiving books that urge thankfulness but never mention who we’re supposed to be thankful to, This is the Feast revolves around the line, “Thanks be to God … our strength and our guide … for the lives he has spared … for this bountiful land … who doth us provide.” This refrain is never forced. It’s quite powerful, in fact, as little eyes see the pilgrims suffer and struggle to survive, and then hear, amid those images, the words Thanks be to God.
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A perplexing, essential concept.
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This is Thanksgiving, a time to remember
The friendships and freedoms we all share together.
3 comments:
I am right there with you, wow are there a lot of holiday books out there. Tough to sort through for the gems.
I really liked this book. A lovely treat.
I liked this book a lot, too. But it's nice to hear a librarian's opinion on the matter. I've not read as many holiday books as you have, I'm sure.
I may not have read a million, but I shelve a million this time of year, usually the same ones over and over. I bought This is the Feast for the library; hopefully it will be one of those that I constantly reshelve!
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