Thank You, Sarah : The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving

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Summary: Teaching about Thankgsgiving
Review: Every elementary and middle school teacher who covers social studies, writing, or Thanksgiving should include this book in their curriculum.

Beyond the facts, this book is a lesson in persistence, in the value of writing, and in the capacity of people to influence their world.

The illustrations are delightful and engaging!

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Summary: Amazon has the Author's Name mixed up w/ the Illustrator!
Review: I really loved this book and consider it important for my children to have on our shelf...something they can pick up for both grins & inspiration. It also includes one of my favorite lines ever..."Never underestimate dainty little ladies." This is a true story about a woman who never gives up writing letters to get amazing things accomplished. One of them includes making Thanksgiving an American national holiday. However...it's a hard book to find on Amazon. You (Amazon)have the author and illustrator mixed up. It was written by Laurie Halse Anderson. Illustrated by Matt Faulkner. (I have the book in my hand as I write this.)

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Summary: Today's lesson: Never underestimate dainty little ladies
Review: One of the best parts of "Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving" is the back cover. The front cover by illustrator Matt Faulkner shows Sarah Hale sitting at her desk, writing one of the man letters she wrote in support of making Thanksgiving a national holiday (while a turkey shows its disdain for the idea), while on the back cover Abraham Lincoln, a black Union soldier, a football player, an Indian brave, a mom (with an apple pie), and a group of children with one dinosaur balloon, looking on approvingly. There is also a nice two-page "flip" of this idea early on in this book, written by Laurie Halse Anderson that shows young readers that there is more to the story of Thanksgiving than Native Americans saving the Pilgrims from starving.

In the first half of the 19th century Thanksgiving was celebrated in New England, but the rest of the country was ignoring the holiday. Anderson and Faulkner present Sarah Hale as a "real" superhero who spent her life fighting for things like playgrounds for kids, schools for girls, and the issue of slavery. She was also an author and everybody who reads this book will stop when they see what famous bit of verse Sarah Hale wrote when she was the first female magazine editor in America. However, the point is that when this activist decided that the whole country should celebrate Thanksgiving on the same day, she took her pen in hand and wrote thousands of letters to politicians in support of the idea, including a long string of American presidents who said "no." But it was not until she wrote a letter during the Civil War that her dream finally came true.

The inspiring story of Sarah Hale is fairly bare boned, but the illustrative embellishments by Faulkner help extend Anderson's narrative. The back of "Thank You, Sarah" includes "A Feast of Facts" that talks about the history of the holiday and some of its traditions, such as watching parades and football games. Anderson also has a nice little section talking about what life was like and what happened in "Vintage America, 1863" and a more detailed biography of Sarah Josepha Buell Hale is provided as well, along with a list of Selected Sources and an admonition for young readers to: "Pick up your pen. Change the world." Even though we are reminded that, "The pen is mightier than the sword," you have to wonder what Sarah Hale would have done with a computer and Internet access.