Gratitude, Wonder, and Stewardship provide the Core Virtues lens in November. Whether your leaves are on the ground or you're simply basking in cooler breezes, it's time to look up from the day to day and count our blessings. That's a great message to kids this Thanksgiving month. So much to be grateful for: the pandemic is in the rear view mirror. Lady Liberty lives as voters head to the polls. And (this is my favorite) some ingenious folks at NASA have come up with new ways to defend the planet. (See Telling Our Stories.) Let's all be good stewards of those blessings in the days ahead, take the time to marvel at the glorious world above and around us, and celebrate the lives of those who were themselves good stewards. | |
November, our month for wondering at the natural world, is a great moment to highlight the work of outstanding astronomers, many of whom were women. We feature three special women in our new books for this month: Venetia Burney, Williamina Stevens Fleming, and Henrietta Leavitt. We also salute Edwin Hubble, for whom the Hubble Space Telescope was named, and feature a first-person account of living in space for a year by astronaut Scott Kelly, who set that endurance record working on the International Space Station. Check out our full-length reviews on our November page! If you'd like to see the work of an amazing astronomer in the present day (who happens to be a woman), watch Harvard astronomer Karin Öberg give a TED talk on "the galactic recipe for a living planet." | |
Writer, poet, and America’s first woman editor, Sarah Buell Hale is responsible for the celebration of Thanksgiving as a national holiday. The holiday had been celebrated sporadically in different states through the early 1800s and occasionally individual presidents declared a specific day of Thanksgiving. But it was Mrs. Hale’s tireless campaign to make it a national holiday that bore fruit under the administration of Abraham Lincoln during the most trying period of American History, the Civil War. Books on Sarah Buell Hale can be found here, and don't forget to check out our Thanksgiving holiday reading page! | |
Over the River and Through the Wood | |
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We have two renditions of the classic poem "Over the River and Through the Wood" by Lydia Maria Child to read to younger children this Thanksgiving. In one of the books the children are heading to "Grandmother's" house, in the other one to "Grandfather's"! Both are beautifully illustrated. Christopher Manson's version includes the music so you can sing along!
"Thanksgiving in the Woods" is another fun variation on the theme of joining Thanksgiving with the great outdoors. Based on a real-life tradition, the book tells the story of children getting ready to go celebrate Thanksgiving with friends outside in the woods. A simple tale for young children, but very lovely, with sweet illustrations. |
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