What do a turkey and a woman name Sarah Hale have in common? Both the turkey and the woman would probably tell you that they have no idea, if the former hadn’t been roasted up for your Thanksgiving dinner, and if the latter hadn’t died over a hundred years ago. Pardon That Turkey, a beginning level chapter book for independent readers, explains it all. Pilgrims and Native Americans may be the stars of the stories we tell at Thanksgiving, but it was the hard work and determination of Sarah Hale that led to the official inauguration of the national holiday by President Lincoln in 1863. Because of her remarkable life as a scholar, wife, mother, poet, magazine editor, and lobbyist, we come together every year as a nation to give thanks, and eat turkey. Learn about her remarkable life as well as the facts and folklore surrounding the yearly presidential turkey pardoning in this interesting and entertaining book.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! So far I have only done picture books in these reviews, but since this is my last post focusing on We Give Books for awhile, I thought I would pick something from their 8-10 year old category. So many young readers have access to and great skills with computers and tablets, online books are becoming more and more relevant to them. This is a nonfiction book, which isn’t for every kid every day, but Susan Sloate has done a good job of telling a true story like a story, with lots of little tidbits that kids are always excited to learn about. For example, Sarah Hale wrote Mary Had a Little Lamb. Who doesn’t want to pull that fun fact out at the playground? I love this story because of the great example Sarah Hale is for young girls. She valued education and learned all she could and made career opportunities for herself despite her limited resources. But she also valued family. She fell in love, got married, pursued her scholarly interests as a housewife until her husband died. Then she took on the world because of something she believed in deeply. I am glad to be able to share this book with my oldest daughter to give her a great history lesson and a worthy role model.
Read this book for free at We Give Books. You have to create an account with a username and password, but that’s free and I have never gotten annoying emails from them.
Visit Susan Sloate’s website.
Visit Christian Slade’s website.
