Thanksgiving Is for Giving Thanks (Reading Railroad Books Series) Book

When I read the summary on the back of the book and it said the holiday is about being thankful for everything from parents and pets to sunshine and lollipops. I recently read another Thanksgiving book that thanked everything under the sun, probably even the sun, and it wasn't the Thanksgiving tale I was looking for.

This suffered from the same problem. It didn't capture the feel of the holiday for me because it branched off into too many random things, some things that were out of season and so probably not something that someone would mention in November.

It did make a nice point that even though Thanksgiving is the day that we eat turkey and pie, it's really about being thankful. The kid was thankful that his parents love him when he's good and not so good, and showed him breaking a vase with a ball. So that's a nice lesson for kids to appreciate their parents who love them through the good and bad.

The writing wasn't great and it's definitely geared towards younger kids with the way things are worded. Like giving thanks "for all the things that make us feel happy." That's definitely a simplified way to say that.

They were thankful for the rest of the family, that their grandma gives good hugs. And their teacher makes them feel special when she hangs their art on the wall. That was too specific for my tastes, as it would only apply to you if your grandma did give good hugs and if your teacher happens to hang art on the wall.

He was thankful for his room, because it's nice to be by himself. That was a bit odd, because a room is where you sleep and play, not just to go off to be alone.

One kid mentioned hot chocolate on a cold, rainy day, but that didn't really feel like November to me.

He was thankful for all the cats and dogs he knows and that was weird to be thankful for someone else's pets you just happen to meet on the street. It would have had more of an impact to be thankful for your own pets who are actually a part of your life.

As this is a book, it was a good thing to have them be thankful for books. That would encourage kids to read and value books.

I really didn't like that lollipops were included. It was so random and you don't really think of having lollipops at Thanksgiving. It was just too random and not the right season for it.

It ended with being thankful for times like Thanksgiving when family could come together and be thankful.

The boy who I thought was the main character isn't even on the cover. Those are his friends but he isn't even there! He's an Asian boy. The book didn't seem to know who to highlight and kept switching between characters. It was jarring to flip the page and have a line in first-person and be like who is that?? It was like a different character on each page. The 3 kids on the cover are only on 1 page of the entire book. It would have more of an impact to highlight just one kid instead of a whole slew.

A very simple, short kind of obscure tale that wants to be Thanksgiving but doesn't quite capture it. The illustrations are just ok, simple too.