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A review by mystic_dclouds
Thanksgiving on Thursday by Mary Pope Osborne
3.0
Jack and Annie find their next magic by travelling back in time to 1621 – the first Thanksgiving Day. The two join a group of Pilgrims and attempt to help out with the preparations leading to many mistakes. Another calming yet interesting addition to this series.
There’s not much to say about this installment. Compared to the previous installments, this book felt very calm and uneventful, making it quite boring. I’m not sure how historically accurate this book represents the events but going by the story it felt almost too easy. I was wondering if Pilgrims were ever cautious given how there were wars and conflict regarding land historically. I understand it’s a children’s book series but sometimes the events happen much too simply to believe in the story.
The information provided relevant to the timeline was a bit underwhelming. It wasn’t interesting and felt almost unnecessary making Jack and Annie seem clueless. As usual there’s a generous mix of information provided through the research book and first hand experience. The first hand experience or descriptions has more subtle information of the time period and they are hard to catch when reading.
One thing I liked about this book was that it showed Jack and Annie’s flaws. A lot of reader’s may dislike this but I personally enjoyed it. Our character’s aren’t perfect and that’s okay. Instead I find that this makes them more relatable since they are 7 and 8 year old children. They don’t know how to help with common household chores and don’t know much about the importance and creation of Thanksgiving Day.
Our main character’s themselves don’t seem to have had any character growth however I do find the lack of interaction a bit concerning. Both Jack and Annie are constantly seen talking with one or two individuals and when there are kids of their age present they rarely interact with them. I wish that as a children’s book we had more interactions between children of that time period instead of with adults.
Overall, this was an okay book. I’m not sure about the historical accuracy but it does depict the first Thanksgiving Day as peaceful as well as the people of the time as very nice. That’s not to say that there isn’t any hints of abuse or slavery. I would be cautious reading this installment and honestly it can be skipped as there’s not much happening.
Read more reviews @ Mystic's Review Shelf
There’s not much to say about this installment. Compared to the previous installments, this book felt very calm and uneventful, making it quite boring. I’m not sure how historically accurate this book represents the events but going by the story it felt almost too easy. I was wondering if Pilgrims were ever cautious given how there were wars and conflict regarding land historically. I understand it’s a children’s book series but sometimes the events happen much too simply to believe in the story.
The information provided relevant to the timeline was a bit underwhelming. It wasn’t interesting and felt almost unnecessary making Jack and Annie seem clueless. As usual there’s a generous mix of information provided through the research book and first hand experience. The first hand experience or descriptions has more subtle information of the time period and they are hard to catch when reading.
One thing I liked about this book was that it showed Jack and Annie’s flaws. A lot of reader’s may dislike this but I personally enjoyed it. Our character’s aren’t perfect and that’s okay. Instead I find that this makes them more relatable since they are 7 and 8 year old children. They don’t know how to help with common household chores and don’t know much about the importance and creation of Thanksgiving Day.
Our main character’s themselves don’t seem to have had any character growth however I do find the lack of interaction a bit concerning. Both Jack and Annie are constantly seen talking with one or two individuals and when there are kids of their age present they rarely interact with them. I wish that as a children’s book we had more interactions between children of that time period instead of with adults.
Overall, this was an okay book. I’m not sure about the historical accuracy but it does depict the first Thanksgiving Day as peaceful as well as the people of the time as very nice. That’s not to say that there isn’t any hints of abuse or slavery. I would be cautious reading this installment and honestly it can be skipped as there’s not much happening.
Read more reviews @ Mystic's Review Shelf