If you want to spice up your Thanksgiving Day festivities, do visit A Patchwork of Books blog . Book reviewer, Amanda, is the writer and she’s also a children’s librarian whose featured review, Duck for Turkey Day (Albert Whitman & Company, 2009) by Jacqueline Jules, is good add to your menu and your bookshelves.
Amanda writes…
"Tuyet, a Vietnamese-American girl, is incredibly disappointed…and more than a bit worried…that her family will not be having turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, but traditional duck instead. She insists that it simply cannot be Thanksgiving without a turkey!"
and…
"I really, really liked the message of Duck for Turkey Day and feel it’s an ever-important one to attempt to get across to kids in today’s time of extreme diversity in our schools, cities, and towns. Not everyone eats turkey on Thanksgiving (like me!) and I think this is a great tool for teaching that."
I agree with Jacqueline and appreciate the point she makes. As a teacher, I have made the gross error in judgment in assuming that all my students celebrated Thanksgiving. I remember one year asking students to conduct news reports on how their families celebrated Thanksgiving, and one girl stoically announced, "My family does not celebrate Thanksgiving." So of course I revised the lesson plan, and had the students report on their favorite holidays instead…a lesson learned.
Duck for Turkey Day by Jacqueline Jules (Albert Whitman & Company, 2009)
Ages 6-8/Grades 1-3
My apologies for the “judgment” typo and grammar errors. I wrote this post on a PC and the software does not support MAC users, so that’s where I am now. Sorry.
This is a great lesson particularly for teachers and others who don’t yet grasp the meaning of cultural competency. So often people tend to think iof “culture” as being Black or White; we have much to learn about our own cultures and those of others. Thanks Amy for helping to bring this to light.