{buybutton id=15376/}We are pleased to share this guest post from children’s author and illustrator Randa Handler on her book, The Thanksgiving Dinner Platter. Here she emphasizes the importance of educating children on different cultures, traditions, and ideas, and provides suggestions for how to use the book in your classroom.
When we meet people from other cultures and with distinctive beliefs, ideally we would realize that we are all quite similar despite our differences, and that people around the world have similar aspirations and experience joys and pains in a basically similar fashion. Sadly, sometimes differences trigger conflicts and fear, and, without knowing it, parents may cultivate these same sentiments in young minds.
As a children’s book author and illustrator, I believe kids are stronger if they are helped early on to understand a bit more of the world around them. If they are taught to be more receptive to differences in traditions and ideas, they are more likely to be confident and interactive adults.
Having grown up around the Mediterranean, I was taught that family and holiday celebrations go hand in hand. My mother looked forward to festive celebrations of Christmas and Easter, and planned them for months. I have fun childhood memories of such festivities where a fleet of young siblings and cousins were running around, playing games, whispering, arguing, and laughing together. The older kids helped with the cooking and the setting of the glorious dinner table, and the younger ones basked in awe of all the colorful commotion.
I think of those festive days and their warm glow flows over me once again. My book The Thanksgiving Dinner Platter is about a special family holiday, Thanksgiving; a holiday I did not experience when I was growing up, but one that I wholeheartedly adopted once I settled in the U.S. I absolutely love its true premise of “giving thanks!” There is so much wisdom and joy embedded in these very simple words.
My challenge when I started working on this book was to relay the message of these words to kids with clarity—and a big smile. I admit that this story has educational goals in its effort to highlight diversity and inspire tolerance, but it was conceived primarily as a joyous tale of two children having a unique Thanksgiving experience.
TheThanksgiving Dinner Platter features the friendship between a Native American boy and a Japanese-American girl. And, for fun, I set the entire book in 1941 and included a simple recipe for cornbread! The recipe is based on the first Thanksgiving dinner eaten by the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians at Plymouth Plantation. I threw in a few Japanese words for good measure, and concluded with the kids sharing their special bread with veterans at the VA and a true historic reference to how Thanksgiving became a national holiday. TheThanksgiving Dinner Platter makes great material for family reading time or for launching discussions about Thanksgiving, its history and traditions.
Here are a few suggestions for using The Thanksgiving Dinner Platter in your lesson plan and for discussing Thanksgiving in the classroom.
- Kids can be instructed to imagine themselves at the first Thanksgiving dinner and asked what kind of cooking utensils were used at the time. Bring grinding tools and pound dried corn kernels as was once done to make cornmeal. Ask students how they think the turkey was cooked, and discuss the differences between life then and now. Kids can participate by reading the story out loud, and by following the cornbread recipe.
- Research, either together or prior to class, whether or not other countries have similar celebrations. Is there a Japanese Thanksgiving? Spanish? Russian? Is similar food served? Does the holiday mean the same thing? They can look at pictures of different festive dishes and discuss their different ingredients. This site includes exotic recipes, and I’m sure there are many more!
- The Thanksgiving Dinner Platter can be read out loud to showcase Japan’s Day of Thanks and clippings from Japan’s celebration can be shared. Discovering Japan’s way of celebrating, as with other cultures, will not only open minds but prove to be fun, too!
- Discuss what Takari learned in the course of the story, and how and why she began to appreciate blessings, big and small. Ask your students: How did her snapping at her dog make her understand her mom’s anger? Use the true historic vignette at the end of the book to discuss when and how Thanksgiving became a national holiday.
I have purposefully stretched the word count in my books to be between 2,500 and 3,000 words, trying to go after early readers. I think there is a forgotten zone between picture books for toddlers and chapter books. There are kids (5 to 9 years of age) who are still interested in picture books, but want a higher word count than what the typical picture book offers. I’m hoping to entice them into more reading by retaining their attention with fun and bright illustrations.
Happy reading, Happy Thanksgiving, and bon appétit!
—Randa
Randa Handler is an author, international journalist, publicist, and publisher. Her interview with actor Rock Hudson (his last) was published worldwide. Her expertise in public relations made many products and personalities household names. Browse her collection of ebooks here.