Alma Flor Ada

Celebrate Thanksgiving Day with Beto and Gaby
Celebra el Día de Acción de Gracias con Beto y Gaby

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Story:

Beto and Gaby anx­iously wait for their rel­a­tives to arrive for Thanks­giv­ing din­ner. One by one, each guest calls to inform them that they will not be able to attend because of a great snow­storm. Thanks­giv­ing with­out Grandma and the rest of the fam­ily is just not the same. What will they do with so much food? What they don’t sus­pect is that their grand­mother has a sur­prise or two, or three.

The his­tory of the Thanks­giv­ing cel­e­bra­tion in the United Sates is com­plex. Hav­ing a cel­e­bra­tion to give thanks for a good har­vest or sur­viv­ing a per­ilous sit­u­a­tion was an estab­lished prac­tice in Euro­pean coun­tries, unfor­tu­nately dur­ing the col­o­niza­tion of the United States this prac­tice was also extended to the cel­e­bra­tion of vic­to­ries after bat­tles with the indige­nous peo­ple of the land, on sev­eral dif­fer­ent occa­sions. What for some was a moment of tri­umph, for oth­ers was a moment of defeat and the per­pet­u­a­tion of great injustice.

The com­plex­ity of the his­tory behind this cel­e­bra­tion needs to be explained to chil­dren at the appro­pri­ate moment.

Using this day to express our grat­i­tude for life and life’s gifts and as an occa­sion to reflect on the need for sol­i­dar­ity and the deter­mi­na­tion to fight against injus­tice would give the cel­e­bra­tion a valu­able meaning.

Non-fiction:

An overview of Thanks­giv­ing cel­e­bra­tions includ­ing the Thanks­giv­ing cel­e­bra­tion which took place in El Paso, Texas years before the one in Ply­mouth and a his­tory of how Thanks­giv­ing became a national cel­e­bra­tion. Includes numer­ous infor­ma­tive photographs.

SERIES DESCRIPTION

Each of the twenty four books in this col­lec­tion ded­i­cated to some of the most impor­tant hol­i­days and fes­tiv­i­ties cel­e­brated in the United States is the com­bi­na­tion of two books in one. The first part is an engag­ing real­is­tic fic­tion story beau­ti­fully illus­trated by a diver­sity of illus­tra­tors. The sec­ond part is a non-fiction piece that explains the his­tory and sig­nif­i­cance of the hol­i­day or cel­e­bra­tion. This sec­ond part is illus­trated with bright and unique pho­tographs that will allow chil­dren to wit­ness the celebration.

The fes­tiv­i­ties addressed include:

• Cel­e­brate Mar­tin Luther King Jr. Day
• Cel­e­brate PowWow
• Cel­e­brate Chi­nese New Year
• Cel­e­brate Hal­loween & Day of the Dead
• Cel­e­brate Mardi Gras
• Cel­e­brate Thanksgiving
• Cel­e­brate St. Patrick’s Day
• Cel­e­brate Hannukah
• Cel­e­brate Cinco de Mayo
• Cel­e­brate Kwanzaa
• Cel­e­brate Fourth of July
• Cel­e­brate Christ­mas & Three Kings Day

For more details in the series and the val­ues it presents see the series descrip­tion: Series Sto­ries to Cel­e­brate / Cuen­tos para cel­e­brar. There is also an indi­vid­ual page, like this, for each of the books in the series.

Les­son plans and ques­tions to guide the Cre­ative Read­ing Dia­logue can be found on the San­til­lanaUSA web­site: www.santillanausa.com/cuentosparacelebrar.htm

CDS DESCRIPTION

There are two CDs with the read­ings of the twelve sto­ries in Eng­lish and two CDs with the read­ings of the twelve sto­ries in Spanish.

The CDs will allow chil­dren to fol­low a pro­fes­sional read­ing aloud indi­vid­u­ally or in groups.

They can be ben­e­fi­cial to chil­dren learn­ing a sec­ond lan­guage, whether Eng­lish or Span­ish, since they will be able to read the book in their stronger lan­guage and then lis­ten to the record­ing in the sec­ond lan­guage, or vice versa.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

When my fam­ily arrived in the United States they embraced the Thanks­giv­ing cel­e­bra­tion as an oppor­tu­nity to reunite with fam­ily that was dis­persed through var­i­ous states.

It was always a time of inclu­sion for both imme­di­ate and extended fam­ily and friends were always wel­comed. It was that capac­ity to always include one more friend that inspired my book In the Cow’s Back­yard or La hamaca de la vaca.

The feel­ing of grat­i­tude is, for me, one of the most impor­tant. I believe in the value of liv­ing in con­stant grat­i­tude, and nur­tur­ing this feel­ing has for me become sec­ond nature.

I try to breathe pur­pose­fully, giv­ing thanks for the gift of life which each breath signifies.

I appre­ci­ate the oppor­tu­nity to get together with fam­ily to reflect about our bless­ings and express our grat­i­tude for them. As I write these lines, Thanks­giv­ing Day is just a week away. I am thank­ful that once more we will have imme­di­ate and extended fam­ily, and friends, to cel­e­brate together the joy of life.

A dif­fer­ent view to Thanks­giv­ing cel­e­bra­tion is pre­sented in Turkey for Thanks­giv­ing? No, thanks or –¿Pavo para la Cena de Gra­cias? –No, gra­cias. The dis­sent­ing voice in that book is that of the turkey. For the turkey becom­ing the dish of the party is not a good idea.

While the book reads as a fun story, it is my inten­tion that by pre­sent­ing a dif­fer­ent point of view in this way, chil­dren will begin to real­ize that every sit­u­a­tion can be seen from dif­fer­ent angles, depend­ing on the posi­tion of those involved.

Since I am one of the two authors of this book, I can share my side of the story. You can visit www.isabelcampoy.com to read what the other author has to say.

Many read­ers are intrigued about how two authors col­lab­o­rate to write a book. If you share this curios­ity you may enjoy read­ing how Isabel Cam­poy explains this expe­ri­ence in the chap­ter authored by her “Writ­ing in Col­lab­o­ra­tion: One plus One is One or Two” in the book Alma Flor Ada and You, vol­ume II pub­lished by Libraries Unlimited.

CORRELATIONS

This book can be cor­re­lated with another Thanks­giv­ing book: Turkey for Thanks­giv­ing? No, thanks or –¿Pavo para la Cena de Gra­cias? –No, gra­cias. from the series Sto­ries the Year ‘Round or Cuen­tos para todo el año.

Chil­dren read­ing in Span­ish may enjoy these poems from the anthol­ogy Días y días de poesía:

Dia de Gra­cias
Alma Flor Ada

Pernil de puerco,
arroz con pollo,
chile rel­leno,
¡me gusta todo!

Día feliz
Alma Flor Ada

Pavo asado,
tor­tilli­tas de maíz,
“Acción de Gra­cias”,
¡qué día feliz!

READERS’ RESPONSES

If you have enjoyed read­ing or shar­ing this book, I would very much like to hear from you. Please click here to send your comments.