This Is the Feast - Softcover

Shore, Diane Z

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0064438503 ISBN 13: 9780064438506

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2011

Synopsis

"This is Thanksgiving, a time to remember the friendships and freedoms we all share together."

The Pilgrims embarked on their legendary Mayflower voyage in 1620 in search of religious freedom and a better life. The settlers were unprepared for the hardships they would face at the end of their journey, but with the help of their neighbor Indians, the Pilgrims survived the first year in their new world. Then, when their fall harvest was plentiful, the Pilgrims and the Indians joined together in a three-day celebration, the first Thanksgiving.

About this title

About the Author

Diane Z. Shore and Jessica Alexander have collaborated on several children's books, including This Is the Dream and This Is the Game. One thing they have learned while cowriting stories is that when people work together, great things can happen. Both authors live with their families in metro Atlanta, Georgia.

Megan Lloyd has illustrated more than forty books for children, including The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams, Thanksgiving at the Tappletons' by Eileen Spinelli, and The Mixed-Up Rooster by Pamela Duncan Edwards. She lives with her husband on a farm in Pennsylvania, where she raises sheep, chickens, and cows. Some of the rabbits from her vegetable garden have even been kind enough to allow Ms. Lloyd to sketch them as models for this book.

From School Library Journal

Grade 2–5—The epic tale of the Pilgrims' first year at the Plymouth settlement is told in verse. Beginning with the Mayflower's journey across the ocean and concluding with the three-day harvest celebration and feast, the struggles and successes of the year are described. Each good turn of events is commemorated with a "Thanks be to God..." appropriate to the Pilgrims' religious motives. The difficult journey and early loss of lives are mentioned along with the discovery of the cleared Patuxet fields and baskets of corn. Squanto, "this wise, clever man," is given credit for helping the Pilgrims by teaching them the skills they needed to survive. It's during the "Feast the Pilgrims prepared" that some long-standing inaccuracies are most apparent. How the Indians participated in and contributed to the Thanksgiving celebration is reduced to the statement that they "shared in the singing and dancing." This omission flaws an otherwise mostly balanced retelling of one of our country's earliest stories. Richly colored and detailed illustrations match the proportions of the events; however, the mentions of "death and disease" and "days of despair" are not reflected in the pictures. Only one apparently ill man is shown amid a room full of robust women and children preparing a meal of roasted fowl and fresh produce. Kate Waters's Giving Thanks: The 1621 Harvest Feast (Scholastic, 2001) and Joseph Bruchac's Squanto's Journey: The Story of the First Thanksgiving (Harcourt, 2000) are better. Larger collections may have room for Shore's title, too.—Carol S. Surges, McKinley Elementary School, Wauwatosa, WI
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About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0064438503
• ISBN 13: 9780064438506
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Lloyd Megan