A Dark, Dark Cave by Eric Hoffman & Illustrated by Corey R. Tabor

This is another book from Clover's lovely stack. 

This one is chock full of imagination and sibling togetherness. 

Wintry landscape. A cave discovered. 

Of course they enter the deep dark cave. 

Where magic lives!

Right next to scary things with giant eyes....

I love this picture!

Aigh!!!

Our brave explorers are not going to take this invasion lying down. 

That's too loud, kids. Find a quiet game. The baby's sleeping.

Sorry, Dad.

This makes me exceedingly happy. 

With eight kids contained in one house for the entirety of Thanksgiving break, I can sympathize with this dad. But I love the imagination of the kids. 

Pouting and.... ideas!

Galloping horses!

In sunshine and birdsong

Leave Me Alone! by Vera Brosgol

I adore this book! It is marvelous. I have it hanging out in my Amazon cart, but my sister brought it up (along with a large stack of other new kids books. She understands me!) for Thanksgiving, so I read lots of awesome books! This one involves a large, boisterous family, winter woolies, knitting, and a cranky little old lady. 

I wasn't sure I was going to like this book that much. I mean, it is all cozy and rural and then she is on the moon? What?! But it works! 

Fabulous!

(And I would like to apologize for my pictures. My camera was not automatically focusing, so they are not all of the best quality.)

Isn't she a cute old granny?

I love her big family!

But, there was a problem. Winter woolens needed to be created.... 

....and her grandkids were too curious about her knitting. 

Aren't these kids just the cutest? 

Just so you can see this one up close... 

Look at her face. I find this picture particularly delightful!

The old woman was at the end of her rope.

She drank from her samovar, swept things ups, and packed her bags.

(I love that she swept before she left.)

She had had it. 

(These colors!!!)

She settled into the woods, but... bears. 

The bear family was very curious about the light from her fire... and about what she might taste like. 

This little old woman was not tolerating curiosity of that nature.

The mountain was no better. Those goats.

So she kept walking, and reached the moon. Which is a quiet, lonely place to knit!

But no. Little green moon-men. 

So she picked up her sack and left through a wormhole. 

(A wormhole!)

Finally there was peace and quiet. She whipped up 30 sweaters in no time. 

And then got lonely. 

So she drank coffee from her samovar (which was of course, in her sack), swept the void to a nice matte black, and left. 

Everything was just as she left it. 

(I am in love with the interiors here!)

Everyone, including the little old woman, was delighted at her return!

Old Tom (Bird Watch) Jane Yolen and Ten Lewin

Old Tom

Across the wet glade,

where the spring green

was still shiny and shade

gave way to shale

the old tom strutted.

Fanning out his bordered tail 

and quick-stepping, wings

sweeping the leaves,

he called his hens. 

Who could see this king 

featherless and gutted, 

crisped and basted,

bordered with yams?

We went home instead and tasted

supermarket tom, 

oozing butter and stuffing, 

whose life had been short

and made for the pan.

In matters of eating, 

our minds do what they can. 

Thankful by Eileen Spinelli & illus by Archie Preston

This is such a marvelously joyous book! The illustrations are similar to Quentin Blake's illustrations, which are somehow intrinsically linked to happy childhood memories. 

So I was prejudiced in this book's favor from the beginning. 

But really, it is happy and joyful! 

This book looks at all the things to be thankful for with a normal family life. The kids pretend to be various things--here, they are a waitress and reporter.

The waitress is thankful for comfortable shoes

The young reporter, for interesting news.

This books just makes me happy.

Parents reading to children makes my heart melt a little. 

The artist is thankful for color and light. 

The dancer is thankful she loves the beat

That stirs her heart

and hips and feet. 

The queen is thankful for afternoon tea--

I love the father's eyeroll as he carries out said afternoon tea. 

The birder is thankful to find a new bird.

The pastor is thankful for God's loving word.

It is really rare for a book to mention God in a passing way. Generally if a book is going to mention God, it goes all out and is so religious that you can hardly bear it. But this is all the mention we have of God in this book. Which is appropriate in a book about thankfulness, I feel. 

The crafter is thankful for glitter and glue. 

And me? I'm ever so thankful.... 

For you! 

 I took these pictures this past summer, at my sister's house. She happened to have this book out of the library, so I decided to take pictures then and there and save them. I feel amazingly organized that I remembered that I had them all this time later. 

Anyway, I was really in love with the leaf shadow on this one. 

Over the River and Through the Woods by Lydia Maria Child & Brinton Turkle

This is a beautifully illustrated version of the song. 

There is a black and white picture of Grandma and Grandfather getting ready next to the stanzas....

...and then a two page colored spread of the family on it's way. Aren't the pictures lovely and New England-y? I feel that Thanksgiving is at it's best in New England. No local bias or anything.

Grandma baking away

Through the woods

Setting the table

And finally, they arrive! Color bursts into Grandma and Grandpa's house! I like the idea of the black and white world awaiting the color of children. Of course it is massively egotistically supposing that older people have lives without color, but it is sort of how I feel getting ready for family coming home for Thanksgiving--the moment they arrive is when things start popping. 

And feasting commences!