'Twas The Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey

The farmer had 8 turkeys which was perfectly suited for Thanksgiving. When they arrived to Farmer Nuggett’s farm, it was cute how the kids were all at the window, with their noses hanging over the edge. The school bus doing a wheely was a comic touch. “When what with their wondering eyes should they see” was too close to “when what to my wondering eyes should appear.” “And then in a twinkling.” “There arose such a clatter.” Patterning a book after that poem is really overused and I would have appreciated an original rhyme more than just using somebody else’s, especially when the words weren’t changed and were copied directly from the poem. The only thing I could have done without is the theme to Twas the Night Before Christmas. I liked the dedication quote from Vincent Van Gogh: “And what is done with love is well done.” This tall-tailed tall tale tells how eight school children on a field trip, their teacher, a turkey farmer named Mack Nugget and gobblers Ollie, Stanley, Larry, Moe, Wally, Beaver, Shemp, and Groucho share in a Thanksgiving all can remember vividly.” “Usually, turkeys don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. Kids often care deeply about animals and this book might give them ideas.Īugust was a wonderful time for me to read this: no wait at the library and no Thanksgiving blues. I’d recommend it for all children but I can just imagine the parents in omnivorous families getting pestered by (some of) their kids after they’re read/listened to this book.

I would recommend this book for vegan and vegetarian children and families. Yes, the story is didactic, but it’s done with humor and heart, and I enjoyed it. The illustrations aren’t amazing, but they’re colorful and engaging, and a few are very amusing, and I think they’re fun.

The poem has some hiccups but it’s still fun and enjoyable to read aloud.

I appreciated that the kids were a multicultural bunch. This is a funny and heartfelt story of 8 children saving 8 turkeys, all ending up guests at their family’s apparently vegan Thanksgiving dinners. Dav Pilkey, of Captain Underpants fame, has written this story poem so that it reads like and reminds readers of Clement Clarke Moore's The Night Before Christmas, This is one of his early books, his third book published.

'Twas The Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey