Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving

This could be a great introduction to a unit on women in history. Especially during the fall. A good example of our civic responsibilities.

The cover of thisThanksgiving Day book with a old fashioned lady wearing quaint clothing and ruffled bonnet sitting at a candle lit desk writing with a quil pen may suggest "boring" to some children. But the turkey in the lower corner with cartoon bubble coming from his mouth say,"Hmmph" suggests

Show More

that the book may contain more than is expected. There's a superhero pilgrim in the present day introduction to the true story of Sarah Josepha Hale, magazine editor, author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb: and petitioners of presidents. Readers learn how a persistence pays off as she writes letters to one president after another until finally Abraham Lincoln responds to her request and establishes our national holiday of Thanksgiving Day.

Show Less

Thanksgiving. Historical account how Sarah Hale made Thanksgiving an Official American Holiday
Read loud 2nd- 7th grade. Good read aloud for older students to practice listening and note taking skills.
see my lesson plan.

Curriculum: An essential book for any library collection and an ideal read aloud at Thanksgiving. This book describes Sarah Hale's decades-long campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday, and is a moving tribute to our national traditions and one woman's remarkable perseverance.

Anderson, L. &

Show More

Faulkner, M. (2005). Thank you, Sarah : the woman who saved Thanksgiving. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks.

Show Less

Laurie Halse Anderson shows that she's not just a YA writer with this humorous and informative look at the tough (but always genteel) Sarah Hale, who made full use of the power of the pen in a time when women were supposed to be seen but not heard.

I've read this book to a few groups over the years and I have to say, it works pretty well. I like the the general tone of the book. The kids get it, and even if they don't care much about history or Thanksgiving they understand that what she did was pretty cool. The last time I read this, my

Show More

audience was a group of fifth graders that had obviously had a long day already by the time I walked into the room, but even in their tired states, they were engaged and seemingly enthused. That's really all I can ask of a book like this. It's history, so it's already a tough sell for some students, but even they don't tune this out. They laugh. They ask questions. They react to the book. That's a book that's doing its job.

Show Less

This non-fiction story explains how Thanksgiving truly came to be. Sarah Hale, a brave, bold, stubborn and smart woman, spent thirty-eight years of her life fighting for Thanksgiving to become a national holiday. It wasn’t until Abraham Lincoln finally said yes in 1863 to unite the people of

Show More

America, and to remember why we celebrated Thanksgiving to begin with.

Show Less

Imagine life without Thanksgiving in the USA: that is how Anderson opens up her story and introduces the historical figure, Sarah Hale. Sarah is a “superhero” who uses her secret weapon, a pen, to argue for Thanksgiving and its implementation as a national holiday. The cartoonish illustrations

Show More

are well-done, and they use warm hues that are reminiscent of the warmth associated with Thanksgiving. Naturally, reading this story around Thanksgiving would be an excellent thematic unit.

Show Less

great book to teach about the importance of the thanksgiving holiday and how it came to be a holiday. shows the perseverance of one woman to save thanksgiving. geared for lower elementary students.

Grade: Elementary

Genre: Picture book

Holidays and Thanksgiving.

Review:
A story about Sarah who decided to write President Abraham Lincoln trying to make Thanksgiving a national holiday.

I just loved this book! It tells the story of Sarah, the educated lady who saved Thanksgiving. I enjoyed the funny comments, great illustrations, and general story. I think my second graders would greatly appreciate this book next year! Adding it to my library!

Could you imagine a time without Thanksgiving? Well, in the 1800s that was almost the case, but thanks to Sarah Hale and her determination to save the holiday, we give thanks on the fourth Thursday of November -together as a nation.

This story is not a normal Thanksgiving story. It is not about the Pilgrims or the Native Americans. It is about Sarah Hale, the woman who saved Thanksgiving. People started to ignore Thanksgiving and Sarah Hale thought everyone should celebrate the holiday. Sarah wrote to politicians, magazines

Show More

articles, and wrote to Presidents Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan. The Civil War was happening and Sarah felt like this was the perfect time to convince President Lincoln that as a whole, our country should celebrate this holiday. President Lincoln agreed with her and in 1863 he delcared Thanksgiving a national holiday.
Before reading this book I had no idea that this event happened. I thought that Thanksgiving was always just a holiday. The pictures and words are very intended audience appropriate. I would read this to my students before we would go on Thanksgiving break.

Show Less

Delightful summary of Sarah Hale's determination in her quest to make Thanksgiving a national holiday, giving props to Abe Lincoln for being the only president to listen. I hear it was a success as a read-aloud in church, and I chuckled myself. Would make a cute holiday tradition to read this each

Show More

Thanksgiving.

Show Less

Great illustrations and a significant story told well. Thank You Laurie!

Great illustrations and a significant story told well. Thank You Laurie!

Author Laurie Halse Anderson, herself a descendant of Sarah Josepha Hale, whose story is set out in this work of picture-book history, opens her narrative by informing the reader that we, Americans, almost lost Thanksgiving. Increasingly a regional holiday, in the nineteenth century Thanksgiving

Show More

was largely celebrated in New England, but had been abandoned elsewhere. But one woman, the eponymous Sarah Hale, wasn't happy with that, and launched a letter writing campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. Over the course of thirty-eight years, Sarah used her pen to write thousands of letters - to multiple Presidents, to other politicians, to the general public - until eventually, in 1863, at the height of the American Civil War, President Lincoln finally made Thanksgiving a holiday for everyone...

I found Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving both informative and entertaining, and imagine that the intended audience would as well. The role of Sarah Hale in preserving Thanksgiving, and making it into the national holiday we celebrate today, is not generally known, I do not think, so Anderson's book is most welcome. Most "histories" of the holiday that I have encountered focus on how it all got going - the ubiquitous Pilgrims and Indians story - but this is more about how the day came to be so widely celebrated. Anderson barely scratches the surface of the many things Hale did in her long life - raising five children, working as an author and editor, creating "Mary Had a Little Lamb" - but there is an extensive afterword that gives more information, and a significant list of sources and further reading ideas. The accompanying artwork by Matt Faulker wasn't really to my taste, although I did find that I preferred the more historical nineteenth-century scenes to the contemporary "mash-up" ones featuring turkeys, Pilgrims and Indians, and people watching television. All in all, an interesting book, one I would recommend to those looking for children's stories about Thanksgiving, or about the changes citizens can effect, simply through persistance and letter writing.

Show Less