Tuesday, November 18, 2014

#Review: Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message by Chief Jake Swamp/Illustrate by Erwin Printup, Jr.




Summary:

Giving Thanks is a special children's version of the Thanksgiving Address, a message of gratitude that originated with the Native people of upstate New York and Canada and that is still spoken at ceremonial gatherings held by the Iroquois, or Six Nations.

My Review:

If you are looking for the traditional book for Thanksgiving with turkeys and pilgrims, this is not it!
This book is a blessing of gratitude for the every day things of the Earth that we so often forget to give thanks for.

This book as told by Chief Swamp is a retelling in English of the words spoken by the native peoples of the Iroquois or Six Nations. I loved that in the back he included the Mohawk version. Although I could not begin to read or understand it, I felt it was beautiful and necessary to preserve the language of the people.

The illustrations on each page were bold and absolutely beautiful. I honestly wanted to go back and just keep looking at the pictures! They were beautifully done and paid homage to the native culture in such a lovely way.

I urge you to pick up this book to share with your families or in the classrooms, you cannot go wrong.
Oh and bonus, this is a Reading Rainbow book which means you can be reassured it is a great read for children.

5 stars without any issues...if I could, I would give it 10! 

Disclosure: I purchased a copy of this book for my own use. The views expressed here are 100% my own and may differ from yours. ~Naila Moon

Where to find the author:



Amazon
Goodreads

7 comments:

Unknown said...

This is sounds like a great alternative to turkeys and pilgrim thanksgiving books. I'm visiting from the Kidlitbloghop.

Randomly Reading said...

I came across your post on Wednesday and went to my library website to get this book, but had to go to work and didn't have time to come back and say thanks for sharing this, I am really looking forward to reading it.

Jambo said...

What a unique book. It sounds enchanting, so thanks for sharing it with us on the Kid Lit Blog Hop

Hummingbird (20SecondsWithMC) said...

What a lovely book. Thank you so much for sharing it on the #KidLitBlogHop! I love the perspective it is written from and how he included the original languages. I will be looking for this. Thanks, Naila. Have a super weekend!

Hummingbird (20SecondsWithMC) said...

I forgot my signature - I'm from the Stanley & Katrina Gang. :0)

Unknown said...

Great review of one of my story time favorites! I'll be sharing your words. Found you on the Kid Lit Blog Hop!

Stacie Theis said...

This is sounds wonderful with such an important lesson for all. Thanks for sharing this on the hop!