WE GATHER TOGETHER (YOUNG READERS EDITION)

Kiernan’s 2020 book for adults of the same name is adapted for middle graders.

Like its source, this edition is largely a biography of Sarah Josepha Hale, who, as editor of the influential 19th-century magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book, waged a decadeslong campaign for the establishment of an annual national day of thanksgiving. Hale filled the magazine with mentions of Thanksgiving, and she wrote to presidents imploring them to make the necessary proclamation, starting with Zachary Taylor after he took office in 1849. Young readers won’t learn that date, though, as the information is omitted. They will, however, read through 12 full stanzas of “Over the River, and Through the Wood,” which occupies 2 1/2 pages—just two of many questionable editorial choices. Hale and her contemporaries are frequently quoted at some length (often in fussy, difficult-to-read display type), with little apparent concern for children’s reading abilities; in contrast, much of the surrounding narrative feels dumbed down. One sentence on Queen Victoria’s wedding dress in the original is expanded into an exceptionally fatuous six-sentence passage that ends with an exclamation mark, one of far too many. There is worthwhile information, such as an account of how the 1621 gathering of Wampanoags and Pilgrims became fixed in the national mythos, but readers will likely become exhausted before they reach it.

A turkey.