As you are busy putting away your Halloween decorations and costumes try not to have those pesky sugar plums dancing in that head of yours just yet! There’s another major holiday right around the corner. Yes, Thanksgiving deserves its day to shine too!
Here are my Top 5 Thanksgiving Books for Kids to get you in the spirit. I have given a brief description of each book along with a suggested activity. I tried to keep each activity very open for you to make your own. Happy reading!
Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving By: Dav Pilkey
An absurdly funny story that follows the classic story we all know and love. This story is a tale about 8 students on a field trip to a turkey farm that learn the fate of the turkeys. It is not for the weak of heart but is silly and outlandish. The illustrations are vivid and truly help tell the story!
Recommended ages: Grade K-3
Extension: Together create an escape route for a turkey. How would you have disguised one of the turkeys to escape the farm? Have your child draw and/or write about it. Remember this should be a fun! Let your child be creative and share with your guests and family on Thanksgiving! Hey, they could join the fun and share their ideas too.
Thanksgiving on Thursday By: Mary Pope Osborn
If you have a 1st-3rd grader and you haven’t heard of the Magic Tree House Series let me introduce you! The series is about a brother and sister team that travel to faraway places and learn about pyramids, rain forests, dinosaurs… This series rocks to peak the interest of both boys and girls alike! In this particular story Jack and Annie have a chance to meet the pilgrims and Native Americans. The duo gets to learn what life was like then and they even help with preparing the first Thanksgiving. Prepare for an adventure!
Recommended ages: Grade 1-3
Extension: Check out The First Thanksgiving on Scholastic for an amazing look at the Mayflower and watch a slideshow about daily life, chores and games.
Thank you, Sarah By: Laurie Halse Anderson and Matt Faulkner
Did you know Thanksgiving almost faded as a holiday? Thanks to Sarah Hale’s determination and persuasive letter writing she saved the day! Read this amazing book, I promise you that even you will learn a thing or two.
Recommended ages: Grades 1-4
Extension: Together write a letter to someone that they are excited to see this Thanksgiving. Have your child write about anything! This should be a fun letter.
Gracias The Thanksgiving Turkey By: Joy Cowley
This story is much like Twas’ the Night Before Thanksgiving but is much gentler in delivery. It’s a very cute book about a boy that befriends a turkey and is on a mission to keep him from being dinner.
Recommended ages: Grades PK-3 A great option for those early and young readers
Extension: Print this turkey coloring page. Have your child color and disguise Gracias from his fate.
Biscuit is Thankful By” Alyssa Satine Capucilli
This sweet board book is about the wonderful things Biscuit is thankful for in his little Doggy world including friendship.
Recommended ages: birth-4
Extension: Discuss what you and your child are thankful for in your lives. Help your little one think less about material things: TV, toys but more meaningful ideas. Such as: Daddy’s hugs, Mommy reading with me, sharing with my friends…
I’d love to hear from you if you give these books or suggestions a try!
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Thank you for sharing! Just today I was looking through my Fall books wishing I had a few more that focused on Thanksgiving. 🙂
Back again to say I just checked out the Scholastic link and it is awesome! My kindergartner has been learning all about the pilgrims. I can’t wait to share this with her.
For ages 5 and up……
Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving
We are always looking for good books, thank you for the list!
Thank you for these Thanksgiving book suggestions.
Cool books! My little guy loves Biscuit. I will definitely check that one out from the library.
These sound great, and I never heard of any before so thanks!
I love Gracias and Twas the Night Before. …
I always share these two with my class. Great list!
My girls love the Biscuit books, and I bet this one would be perfect for their ages!
Thank you so much for these great ideas, each book sounds fantastic!
I actually haven’t heard of any of these books. We have some of the Biscuit books too so I’m not sure why we don’t have Biscuit’s Thankful.
Very cute books…thanks for sharing!
Cute what a great idea. I have most of these still in packaging from last book order I think.
Lovely books! I like to keep books here for the grands and other kids who come around, and books are one of my favorite gifts.
Thanks for sharing these book ideas! I’ll have to check them out. My grandson would probably enjoy Biscuit is Thankful By” Alyssa Satine Capucilli.
Great roundup! I’ll have to look into a few of those.
Kas
I love reading seasonal books to/with my kids. These look like great books that I’ll have to add to our list.
We love the “Turkey Ball” – we’ve been reading it since LJ was three and it still cracks us up!
I love that last book, we actually own it.
These look like great reads!
We’re always looking for good books for the kids, thanks for sharing!
My kids love all the Biscuit books.
My daughter Hannah would probably be interested in these. She is a bookworm.
Thanks for sharing! I don’t think I’ve ever read any of these books, which is odd since I used to work at an elementary school for years.
What great books, thanks for the recommendations!
Thanks for sharing!
I will have to look up these titles for my son. They are cute.
My son loves the biscuit books still!
great list of books for the holidays thanks for sharing
These will be great for our thanksgiving party at school!
Thanks for the list, my daughter loves to read and these would be great to help her understand the holiday.
These are cute. I’ll have to check these out for the baby girl.
We’ve always loved the Dav Pilkey one, but the others are new to me. I think I might have about 5 Thanksgiving themed books right now.
We have tons of books, but very few Thanksgiving themed ones… thanks for sharing!
Good ideas, we’ll check them out
I enjoy reading through an article that can make men and women think.
Also, thank you for allowing me to comment!
We also love “Over the River: A Turkey’s Tale” by Derek Anderson and “I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie” by Alison Jackson.