Sharing the Bread: An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving Story

There is something about Thanksgiving that puts everyone in an old-fashioned frame of mind. The traditional foods served bring harvest to mind and set everyone to thinking about families gathering. Author Pat Zietlow Miller and illustrator Jill McElmurry take young readers on a journey to the turn of the twentieth century to spend this beloved holiday with an extended family of that time. Miller uses perfect meter and rhyme with plenty of repetition to show everyone in the family from parents to grandparents to aunts and uncles and all the children making contributions to this festive day. The poetry is so lyrical it is hard not to sing the words in this cheerful rendering of a truly American family celebration. McElmurry’s illustrations are perfectly enchanting and will make that journey to the early 1900s complete with plenty of fun details for little ones to find: bunches of herbs hanging to dry, wainscoting on the walls, long dresses and aprons for the ladies, a pump at the sink, and a monstrously large wood-burning stove that is at the center of everything. This perfectly charming story will be read over and over and may well become a holiday classic.