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‘Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving-Dav Pilkey October 23, 2007

First of all, we need to give kids some credit. They truly do realize that ‘Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving is just a fun take-off on the Christmas “‘Twas…”. The book (As one person seems to purport.) is not a “Let’s all become vegans!” platform nor is it a recommendation for children to steal. Farmer Mack Nugget (Gotta love the name.) does zone a bit into the dark side with his ax-planation, but it hasn’t proven to be too scary for any students to whom I’ve read the book.

Eight children board a school bus for a field trip to a turkey farm. Once there, they romp. They play. They gobble up all the fun they can. One little naive child then notices Farmer Mack Nugget’s (Still loving it.) ax. “What is it for?” His graphic explanation has reality rearing its ugly, wattled head. The clever children concoct a scheme to save the day by tricking the unfortunately unobservant adults and wattling, I mean, waddling back on the bus. If we exclude the fiendish farmer, the tail, er, tale ends satisfactorally. That is, it all ends satisfactorally unless you’re of the faction that feels there are children out there just waiting for their next visit to Farmer Mack Nugget’s (Ah, you know.) farm to exercise some perversive dalliance in delinquency. The students love this rhyming book and after all these years of reading it to them, I have yet to hear that Tommy or Gertrude has been picked up on charges of turkey “stuffing.”

“Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving
Written and Illustrated by Dav Pilkey
Accelerated Reader RL 4.0

• ‘Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving at Amazon
  
• Dav Pilkey Extra-Crunchy Website of Fun

I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie-Alison Jackson August 18, 2007

Could I do it? Could I write a “based on” book? Let’s see. Medical: I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Sty. (No, too yucky.) Tragedy: I Know an Old Lady Who Stifled a Cry. (No, too depressing.) Realism: I Know an Old Lady Who Told a Big Lie. (No, too close to home.) Okay, okay, I’ll stop. On to the review! I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie written by Alison Jackson is a super Thanksgiving book to be read to or by children. I should say sung to or by children. How can you not? “I know an old lady who swallowed a pie. A Thanksgiving pie, that was really too dry. Perhaps she’ll die.” Our old lady starts off as a skinny frail little thing and as she eats more and more, the inevitable happens. (Just ask my scales.) The last word we need to rhyme is “bread” (read with dire forboding) but, as we find out, lots of words rhyme with “bread”. The illustrations by Judith Byron Schachner are super and I really enjoyed the cat and mouse interplay. Wait! How about: I Know an Old Lady Who Sucked a Joke Dry?

I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie
Written by Alison Jackson
Illustrated by Judith Byron Schachner
Accelerated Reader RL 3.9

• I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie at Amazon
• Alison Jackson Website