MARY’S FIRST THANKSGIVING

Young Mary, newly arrived with her family from Ireland, has few friends, and her family doesn’t have the extra money for a turkey. But her father helps her to find gratitude by telling her the story of the Pilgrims, extending the tale beyond the storied harvest to the hard times that followed, with each colonist restricted to five kernels of corn a day until finally their prayers were answered with rain. Papp’s relentlessly lit spreads are peopled with some of the cleanest, best-fed Pilgrims and Irish immigrants in literature, complementing the highly directive subtitle to a T. The parenthetical “or else” may be unsaid, but certainly does not go unfelt. (Picture book. 5-8)