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Some low-calorie books for your Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving is a great holiday. There is food. There is prayer. There is more food. There is football. There is more food and leftover food. Children can relate to Thanksgiving easily since they have been eating food their whole life.

A playful book about a favorite Thanksgiving food is “All for Pie Pie for All” by David Martin. The illustrations by Valeri Gorbachev are delightful. Grandma Cat prepares a pie and shares it in smaller and smaller portions with the animals in the kitchen, all the way down to the ants. This story demonstrates the qualities of sharing and cooperation.

Let your child help prepare a pie. Small children can roll out the dough for the crust or stir the ingredients. Older children can prepare a pie by themselves with a prepared graham cracker crust and instant pudding. Make a card to let everyone at the big event know who prepared the pie.

For an old fashioned poem that evokes nostalgic images of your grandparents' grandparents, read “Over the River and Through the Wood.” This is the traditional poem by Lydia Maria Child illustrated with woodcuts by Christopher Manson. There is also a board book version for the very young.

After reading this book with your child, help them make a picture of their grandparent's house or apartment. If you start with brown construction paper you can offer black, brown, red, orange and yellow crayons so the picture will have the same qualities as the illustrations in the story. Share stories of your grandparents with your children while you draw.

To teach your children about the first Thanksgiving there are many books to choose from. I like “This is the Feast” by Diane Z. Shore, mainly because of the detailed illustrations by Megan Lloyd. These pictures show the devastating difficulties that the pilgrims faced, even including seasickness on the Mayflower.

You can reenact the first Thanksgiving with a fun lunch. Let each child decide to be a Native American or a pilgrim and dress accordingly. Eat corn on the cob and chicken drumsticks and fresh baked pumpkin.

For a different take on Thanksgiving read “Molly's Pilgrim” by Barbara Cohen. This is the sensitive story about a girl who feels left out finally being accepted by her peers. It was written to remind all of us that pilgrims have come to America for religious freedom even in more recent times. It was illustrated by Daniel Mark Duffy.

You can make a pilgrim doll with corn husks. Take a dry corn husk and fold it over. Tie it with a small strip of corn husk. Take another piece and tie it perpendicular to the body to create arms. Dress your doll with black and white fabric to create a pilgrim. Let your child make a whole family and use markers to decorate them. A shoe box can start out being the Mayflower and morph into a log cabin.

Celebrate with low calorie books this Thanksgiving.

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