Reader's Response to Thanksgiving: The True Story

Your work is incredible . . . . The whole time I was reading I was marveling over your research . . . . I plan to give a copy to our 7th grade history teacher. . . . She can devise some really good lessons using the book. I like the way you use original sources with this age group. I was never taught to do that until I got to college! Dot Emer, middle school librarian, Saint Andrew's School, Boca Raton, Florida

Readers Responses to Thanksgiving: The True Story

Mollie Hoben, co-founder with Glenda Martin, of Minnesota Women's Press that publishes a bi-weekly newspaper and, my favorite literary magazine, bookwomen (www.womenspress.com), and who leads "Reading-on-the-Road adventures (books@womenspress.com): Congratulations for another great achievement! I enjoyed reading it, and especially liked the way you make the actual doing of history so much a part of the story, describing how you did the research and what that entails. That seems really important for young readers (or readers of any age, actually!) and may intrigue some into the whole idea of the engaging challenges and satisfactions of research.

Julie Hemming Savage, co-author with Heidi Hemming of the terrific forthcoming book, Women Making America, (www.womenmakingamerica.com): I'm enjoying your book! We will make it a part of our living, evolving Thanksgiving tradition.

Jackie Marshall Arnold, a professor in the Department of Teacher Education, University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio: I can't wait to use it with my Middle School preservice students!

Reader Response to Thanksgiving: The True Story

This response is from Linda Levstik, a professor of social studies at the University of Kentucky, and the author with Keith C. Barton of the excellent book Doing History: Investigating with Children in Elementary and Middle School. With her permission, here is her email:
Hi Penny,
The semester is over and I've finally had a chance to catch up (sort of!). I loved Thanksgiving: The True Story. I am always nervous when anyone uses the word "true" in relation to history, but this is an excellent example of the kind of truth historical inquiry might inform--tentative based on available evidence, open to new information, inviting new information, going for complexity and ambiguity. How lovely. I'm doing a workshop in Connecticut in July and will recommend this one (along with your other books) to the elementary teachers who are the most likely to be teaching about Thanksgiving.

I particularly like the chart of claims and sources--what an example for teachers who might do the same with other historical stories/myths. In Doing History we included a similar example for Christopher Columbus and one for Johnny Appleseed. The charts really helped younger students make sense out of conflicting information. I was also thinking about the "harvest home" origins and how often that festival ends up in children's fantasy literature (Susan Cooper's work especially). It would be interesting to have children search out the holiday connections used across genres and drawing on ancient as well as more modern interpretations/celebrations.

Anyway--good food for thought (thank you!), good sources to explore, and information I didn't know about other claims to be "first" at giving thanks. We are a funny people with our concern about firsts, aren't we?!

Catching Up, including the answer to our frog questions

Yikes, I realized I've neglected my blog; so, here's a catching up post. We were in Spain for a week & highlights included day-trips to Segovia & finally seeing the spectacular Roman aqueduct. (I included a picture of it in my book Toilets, Bathtubs, Sinks and Sewers: A History of the Bathroom, and was thrilled to finally see it.); and Cordoba, and visits in Madrid to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (where the art is displayed on gorgeous salmon-colored walls as per the instructions of Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza) and the Sophia Reina Museum (where I spent considerable time viewing Pablo Picasso's Guernica and the display of Picasso's process for creating it).

I've also been occupied finishing the semester at Queens College, the last of my five-year term as a Distinguished Lecturer. It was fun sorting through my library and deciding which books to take home and which to give away to my students. What's next, some of my students asked?
Writing, writing, writing, I replied.

I just wrote two guides for Thanksgiving: The True Story: a Reading Guide and a Classroom Connections Across the Curriculum Guide. Email me if you want copies. I'll also be posting them on my web site.

On our Sophie/Grammie Day this week, we took a long hike through the woods. Sophie was the scout who kept us on the "red" trail. The path was a maze of tree roots, some big enough for Sophie to use as a balance beam. We arrived at a pond and spent 1/2 hour observing frogs that were sitting close to the shore with their heads and backs above water. They were motionless, even when a gaggle of noisy kids appeared, motionless even when one kid poked a frog with a stick, which, of course, I stopped. ("Grammie," Sophie whispered, "Why did she do that?" My impulse was to say, "Because she's mean!" but that did not seem like a helpful explanation for Sophie; instead I said, "Perhaps she hasn't learned how to treat animals. What do you think?" Sophie thought that she should learn. We were perplexed by the frog's behavior & I speculated that perhaps they were guarding eggs, but we agreed that we needed to do research.
Part of our research was for me to consulted via email with a dear, long-time friend, Dr. Judy Brook, who is a marine biologist: Here's her reply: Dear Penny and Sophie, First of all, you two get the Patience Prize for watching a frog for almost 1/2 an hour. That's what makes a good scientist--being patient and observant.
About your observations and questions: Our northern frogs don't guard their eggs. There are few tropical frogs that glue their eggs to the mates' back and let the dads carry around the tadpoles until the young hop off on their own. Our frogs lay their eggs and that's the last they see or care for their young. I think your frogs were cold. When frogs (and other amphibians) get cold they don't move. In fact, they can't move. They have no energy. Do you remember if the frogs were facing or had their backs to the sun? (They were.) Amphibians and reptiles tend to orient their bodies, when they are cold, to expose the most amount of their skin to the sun. That warms them up. Turtles will even turn their backs to the sun, extend their back legs, fan their toes, and act like solar collectors.

Judy lives in Vermont and she ended with this lovely description: We are in the throughs of spring--apple and cherry trees in full bloom, forget-me-nots making sure we don't, tulips almost over the hill, and thousands of shades of green on the hillsides. I love it!!!!!!!!!
Me, too!