ForTheYoungerGeneration*: Grace & Bruchac’s 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving [at Plimoth Plantation]:ThanksgivingDay II
Written: Nov 13 '01
Product Rating:
Pros: Youngsters will discover history can be interesting as well as informative. Have fun! ENJOY!!
Cons: None...there’s even a virtual tour of Plimoth Plantation available on the Internet at [http://www.plimoth.org/plimexp/default.htm].
The Bottom Line: History reflects the winners’ viewpoints. But sometimes the descendants of both sides can work together to discover what really happened. National Geographic Society’s photo-essay shows us what modern researchers uncovered.
gobbysreviews's Full Review: Catherine O'Neill Grace, Grace Bruchac, Inc Plimot...
So, you’d like to encourage your youngsters to read more, perhaps develop an interest in history? National Geographic’s 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving, is the perfect way to start--if you let them know what’s in it for them!
Think about it: Why are you reluctant to learn something new? If you don’t expect to enjoy yourself, if there’s really nothing in it for you, why would you bother? Kids aren’t any different. They, too, want a reason to acquire a new skill, or read a book that isn’t required for their schoolwork.
Many of our reluctant readers just haven’t found a reason to read. But this book ought to do it. Why? Because reading this is the perfect opportunity to gather information--information most adults don’t know about, yet. Kids will love the power that Catherine O’Neill Grace & Margaret M. Bruchac’s 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving, gives them.
The next time your youngsters receive an assignment to write a composition about the “First Thanksgiving,” it will be a slam-dunk. Instead of moaning about how boring it will be to do it, gleeful grins will suffuse their innocent, cherubic faces. They’ll have an opportunity to get away with disagreeing with their teachers’ long-held, but incorrect beliefs about that First Thanksgiving.
Your kids will be able to write that the foods we now eat for Thanksgiving weren’t necessarily eaten that first Thanksgiving. Nor was it a religious holiday. And furthermore, those Pilgrims didn’t wear ugly black outfits.
Think back. Do you remember the uproar when folks started suggesting that Christopher Columbus wasn’t the first guy to hit our shores? Were you one of those lonely kids in the classroom who dared to raise your hand and mention this to your teacher?
Do you remember your teacher deliberately humiliating you by saying that, “Just because your parents told you this doesn’t make it true!”
Well, not this time. Because it’s published by National Geographic, 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving will make their teachers think twice. Oh, yeah. It’s payback time for kids!!
This beautifully photographed volume, created especially for your youngsters, doesn’t talk down to them. Although folks of any age will certainly enjoy and learn from it, National Geographic Society published 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving to give your kids a carefully researched and clearly written book about the true historical setting of the First Thanksgiving celebration.
1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving is a wonderful teaching aid. Your kids will learn the facts, not the fantasies, about The First Thanksgiving. With any luck, thanks to Catherine O’Neill Grace’s writing talents, they’ll discover that history doesn’t have to be boring. Don’t hold your breath, but, they might decide to do additional research about the holiday, people, time frame. In fact, once they realize the power knowledge gives them, they might discover they actually enjoy researching a subject. (What a help that attitude will be as they progress through their school years!)
In case your kids do get the urge to indulge in a bit of additional research on this subject, the authors included a Bibliography at the back of the book containing:
* Further reading about Native traditions
* Teacher material
* Primary source material; and their
* Web site address
From School Library Journal: “...While debunking the Thanksgiving story as it is most frequently told, this recounting in no way detracts from the historical importance of the holiday....”
From Kirkus Reviews: “Thanksgiving, the myth, surrenders to Thanksgiving, the real story, in this collaboration of historians, scholars, and descendants of the Wampanoag people...”
Authors & Photographers [quotes are from the dust jacket]
Catherine O’Neill Grace is a “former National Geographic staff writer and editor and a former Washington Post columnist....” She’s done a number of children’s career books in the I Want to Be... series. Her latest, adult book is:
* Best Friends, Worst Enemies : Understanding the Social Lives of Children by Michael Thompson, Catherine O’Neill Grace, and Lawrence Cohen (2001)
Margaret M. Bruchac, “an Abenaki, is an adviser for the Wampanoag Indian Program at Plimoth Plantation and a consulting interpreter for Old Sturbridge Village. She is also the recipient of the 2000 Storyteller of the Year award for public performance from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers....”
Sisse Brimberg & Cotton Coulson, “are wife and husband. Sisse Brimberg has photographed more than 20 articles for National Geographic magazine. Her story on migrant workers won first prize for Picture Story of the Year from the National Press Photographers Association. Cotton Coulson, a former contract photographer with National Geographic, first shot at Plimoth Plantation in 1976....”
Closing notes
“Plimoth Plantation is a living history museum of 17th-century Plymouth, located in Plymouth, Massachusetts. In October 2000 the museum sponsored a reenactment of the 1621 harvest gathering....staff and members of the Wampanoag Nation and other Native communities came together to depict the events of that time....1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving is illustrated with photographs from that event.”[quoted from the dust jacket]
When Plimoth Plantation was founded in 1947, no one asked the descendants of the Wampanoag Nation if they had anything they’d like to say about this early English settlement--which was only natural in 1947. Times and attitudes change. This book is “a new look at the real history behind the event that inspired the myth of The First Thanksgiving.”
Get a copy today. Share it with your youngsters. ENJOY!
Final notes
1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving, written by Catherine O’Neill Grace & Margaret M. Bruchac with Plimoth Plantation; photographs by Sisse Brimberg & Cotton Coulson; and published by the National Geographic Society, is available from your usual bookseller as:
* a hardcover of 48 pages (Dimensions 0.38 x 11.22 x 8.84 [in inches]:), published by National Geographic Society in September 2001, ISBN: 0792270274 School & Library Binding, Reading level: Ages 9-12, list price no greater than $$17.95 US, or £12.99
From the Library of Congress records [www.loc.gov]:
Includes index.
Subjects:
1. Thanksgiving Day--Juvenile literature.
2. Pilgrims (New Plymouth Colony)--Juvenile literature.
3. Indians of North America--First contact with Europeans--Juvenile literature.
[1. Pilgrims (New Plymouth Colony)]
[2. Massachusetts--History--New Plymouth, 1620-1691.]
[3. Thanksgiving Day.]
[4. Holidays.]
* * * * *
Additional information from Plimoth Plantation
* Why “P-l-i-m-o-t-h”?
http://www.plimoth.org/whyplimoth.htm]
* The Pilgrims in American culture: Thanksgiving
http://www.plimoth.org/Library/Thanksgiving/th1.htm
* A Virtual Tour of the 1627 village at Plimoth Plantation
http://www.plimoth.org/plimexp/default.htm
Additional Internet sites about the North American Thanksgiving traditions:
* Not Just for Kids! The First Thanksgiving
http://www.night.net/thanksgiving/first.html-ssi (graphics versions)
http://www.night.net/thanksgiving/first-txt.html-ssi (text versions)
* “The Truth About the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving, and Where to Get Help Re-creating a Seventeenth-Century Style Harvest Feast, or ‘The First Thanksgiving’”
http://pilgrims.net/plymouth/thanksgiving.htm
* Canadian Thanksgiving
http://www.thanksgiving-traditions.com/html/canada.html
* Books ForTheYoungerGeneration are Children’s Chapter Books or books suitable for children to read alone with very little help from a dictionary or older reader.
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