This week all classes are hearing books having to do with the Thanksgiving holiday. Specific readaloud choices can be found on the Weekly Readalouds page.

It is unusual that I read the same book to more than one grade, but I'm doing so this week with Sarah Gives Thanks, by Mike Allegra, which is on loan from the Manhattan Beach public library. I often read Thank You, Sarah, by Laurie Halse Anderson, which is on the same topic: Sarah Hale's long campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday celebrated on the same day throughout the country. Sarah Gives Thanks is a bit more serious, more frank about Sarah's need to make a living after being widowed, and more interested in her role in promoting equality for women in education, employment, and public perception. We'll see what the students think.

Also this week I will be previewing with grades 4 and 5 some of the books that will be available at our upcoming school book fair, presented through Pages, our local independent bookstore. If you haven't been to Pages, you surely should visit; but it is thrilling that the store will be "coming to us" for our fair. I guarantee it: you can plan to get done a lot of your holiday shopping at the fair! The books in the preview box are gorgeous, as are all the handpicked books you'll find at the store, so I am sure the fair will be spectacular. The fair will take place right after our holiday week off. It starts November 30, and family night is Wednesday, December 2, from 5:30 to 8:30. 

This week in library we are hearing stories from the cultures of the Native Americans, otherwise known as American Indians.

Kindergarten is not visiting this week as all three kinder classes come on Wednesday, which this week is Veterans Day.

The younger grades are hearing traditional Native American tales. All readalouds can be found on the Weekly Readalouds page of this site. I'm particularly looking forward to Turkey's Gift to the People, as told by Ani Rucki. Being a vegetarian, I like to give turkeys good press around Thanksgiving. TK will be hearing Jingle Dancer, by Cynthia Leitich Smith, a new book in our collection. There's a YouTube video embedded below of jingle dancers performing at a competition--I hope to show this to the TK students. (As always, beware of comments, advertisements, and sidebars that may accompany YouTube content and that may not be appropriate for children.)

Grade 3 will hear Her Seven Brothers, told by Paul Goble. It is a Cheyenne tale about the origin of the Big Dipper. What a great book this is. We will talk a bit about the types of folklore and in particular focus on what a legend is.

Grade 4 will hear a Karuk tale, Fire Race, as retold by Jonathan London. This one is on loan to me from our local public library. To give the students a bit more context, I'm also planning to show a short National Geographic video. We will take a quick look at the website of the Karuk tribe. 

To grade 5 I'm planning to read a book I have never read aloud: Bright Path: Young Jim Thorpe, by Don Brown. Jim Thorpe was a Sac and Fox Indian who medaled in the pentathlon and the decathlon at the 1912 Olympic games. Many have referred to him as the greatest athlete of the twentieth century. In preparing to share this book, I came upon an interesting article in Smithsonian about Jim Thorpe and the IOC. The article (which is written at a grownup level) provides a good discussion of Thorpe's athletic feats as well as thoughts on the IOC's decision to strip from Thorpe his 1912 Olympic medals. Just so the students can see film of Thorpe I will show a 1-minute video promoting PBS's "Jim Thorpe: The World's Greatest Athlete."

Books about American Indians and about Veterans Day are on display. Please check some out to read and think about at home.

Thanksgiving is coming--it's one of my favorite holidays. At this time of year I like to read stories of immigrants coming to America, to connect us with the journey of the Pilgrims and to connect us to our own ancestors, such as the grandparents with whom many students will share the Thanksgiving meal. Next week we'll have a go at Thanksgiving from the other side by reading Native American folktales or stories about Native Americans.

This week's book for second grade is the charming How My Parents Learned to Eat, by Ina R. Friedman. To go with it, the students will have a chance to practice using chopsticks! Thanks to local restaurant Big Wok for providing us with 25 pairs.

A PK parent and volunteer, Sofia W.'s mom, has taken on decorating the bulletin board outside the library. Thanks, Jeanne!

Otherwise it's a pretty quiet week in the library. All classes are visiiting at their regular times, we have a five-day week, nothing really unusual is anticipated. It's kind of nice sometimes to have a regular ol' week. The week's readalouds are relatively short, so the students should have plenty of time for browsing, reading, and circulation during their class visits.