Nonna's Guide to Harvest Gratitude, 2022

Photo by Taya Dianna at Unsplash

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Thankful

Taking time to express gratefulness for the good in our lives is essential to our children's well-being - research draws clear correlations between the practice of gratitude and mental and emotional health in children and teens!

As important as thankfulness is to individual well-being, it is also essential for community well-being - celebrating milestones in a community's life has been practiced across cultures since the beginning of time. And, usually, the biggest celebration of gratitude is for the harvest - who isn't grateful for a secure source of food?!

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Click on the cover to read Nonna's Review.

Celebrating the harvest is found in every culture - joining family, friends and your community to commemorate the fruit of hard work and to share gratitude for a future season of food security is just about the best reason I can think of for a party!

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This is perhaps one of the more beautiful children's books I've reviewed this year. The illustrations  in oil perfectly capture the poetic moonlight images in the text. By the time you've finished reading aloud your children will want to spend a full-moon night outside hiding in the moonshadow, chasing the milkweed moonlings, or dancing with luna moths.

Click on the cover to read Nonna's Review.

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Click on the cover to read Nonna's Review.

Wow - this is an amazing book!  It's a joy-filled journey sharing what nature provides for food, as well as for every other item needed for the Tlingit, Haida and Tsmishian peoples to thrive!

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Read alone or with 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving to honor the Mashpee Wampanoag by refocusing on that first harvest feast from the First People's view rather than through a Pilgrim-centric lens.

Click on the cover to read Nonna's Review.

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Click on the cover to read Nonna's Review.

Giving Thanks is the children's companion book to Kiernan's 2020 We Gather Together: A Nation Divided, a President in Turmoil, and a Historic Campaign to Embrace Gratitude and Grace. Be sure to read both - the context will help you address the difficult questions surrounding the Thanksgiving holiday.

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If you could read just one book about gratitude to your child, this is the one. Seriously, if I had to choose just one, Vickers' Thankful would be the gift I give to each of my grandchildren.

The diorama-like illustrations are stunning, but the it's the story which is worth reading over and over with our children.

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Thirty-two poets and thirty-two poetry forms - extraordinary! Your children  will love this book- there is something for everyone.

And if you don't see it in your child's classroom, a copy of Thanku would be the perfect gift for a teacher...

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Families who eat meals together regularly find many ways to give thanks for the food before them - and being grateful is healthy for mind and body.

Apple Cake is a gratitude - one which can be memorized and shared before each meal.  The illustrations are rich with emotion and charmingly captivating.

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I hope this month's books will help you to share with your children habits of thankfulness as you choose how to navigate the tensions between the two national holidays on the fourth Thursday of November: Thanksgiving Day and A Day of Mourning.

As much as I love the family gathering together on Thanksgiving Day, it is not a holiday I can celebrate any longer since it commemorates the beginning of the centuries-long oppression and genocide of this continent's First Peoples. If you would like to learn more, begin with Native Hope's The History of Thanksgiving from the Native American Perspective. 

However you commemorate the day, focus on those values which bring us together: truth, humility, integrity and gratitude.

May your harvest gratitude be rich in
family, friends & amazing food -
gratitude keeps us humble and kind,
Nonna