A review by erine
1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving by Catherine O'Neill Grace

History frequently gets muddled up with myths and stereotypes, resulting in an imperfect understanding of our past. In this lengthy picture book for older children, the very first point made is that our myth of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday is founded on one brief letter that sparked an entire Thanksgiving Legend. As an elementary student, I have vague memories of dressing up as Pilgrim with Black Hat and Buckle or as an Indian with paper bag vest and paper headband of feathers. I'm sure the lessons of sharing and goodwill and gratitude were all imparted with the best of intentions, but there's no doubt that those positive values had a backdrop of false history.

This book strives to peel back the layers of myth and describe what actually happened at the first Thanksgiving. Using photographs of reenactors and multiple sources that are referenced in the backmatter, Grace and Bruchac tell a no frills story of Thanksgiving that is frank in its discussion of the colonists' flaws and in the portrayal of the Native Wampanoag whose community had been decimated by illness.

Interesting and illuminating, this also piqued my interest about visiting Plimoth Plantation, which seems to have gone to considerable effort to tell a truer story through their living history program.

Includes two delicious looking recipes.