IT'S THANKSGIVING!
by Jack Prelutsky & illustrated by Marylin Hafner
Like Prelutsky's It's Halloween and It's Christmas, this consists of jog-trotting rhymes concerning standard holiday topics - including the modern one of the after-dinner football game on TV. The least expected but still mild ending comes in "I Went Hungry on Thanksgiving." The reason - "my new braces hurt so much." There's a rhyme about the parade seen (the last line reveals) on TV; a straight one about "The First Thanksgiving"; another set at school ("Our teacher gives us projects/that we work on every day,/we make Indians and Pilgrims/out of paper, paste, and clay. . . ."); still others set at the dinner table; and a final one about too many turkey leftovers. Hafner picks up the spirit of familiar fun, and though there are no delights here, the sheer predictability of form and content (suitable perhaps to this most predictable of holidays) might be an advantage to beginning readers.