Skip to main content

Picture Books About Gratitude

Today is Thanksgiving Day, a day that is used as a day to express our gratitude for what we have, the experiences we enjoy, and the people that we love. Gratitude helps to change our perspective on life and bring more joy! Each of these picture books below tell stories about gratitude and how to more fully appreciate the good around us. Happy Thanksgiving! 

Thankful
Written by Elaine Vickers
Illustrated by Samantha Cotterill
New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2021.

Throughout the year, a little girl creates a thankful chain by writing what she is grateful for on slips of paper and linking them together. Her chain grows longer and longer as more ideas come to her about what to be grateful for. The illustrations in this picture book are very unique, using paper-folding, photography, and drawing to create beautiful scenes on each page.


Our Table
By Peter H. Reynolds
New York, NY : Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., 2021.

Our Table is all about a girl who misses gathering around the dinner table together as a family. Each family member seems to now be distracted by different technology, the television, phones, and video games. The less time they spend together, the smaller the table becomes until it vanishes. Once it is gone, the girl gets her family to work together to build a new table, so that they may once again gather around it without distractions. A perfect reminder of what matters most and being grateful for the time we have together.


Written by Cynthia Rylant
Illustrated by Sergio Ruzzier
New York : Beach Lane Books, 2021.

A frog and a rabbit give thanks as they go throughout their day, for all the little things. For family members, for bugs, for weather, and all the things that bring them joy. At the end of their day, they gather all of their friends together for a giant feast to show their gratitude. This cute rhyming picture book helps readers to be grateful for the little things that are often overlooked. 


Thanks for Nothing!
By Ryan T. Higgins
Los Angeles : Disney-Hyperion, 2021.

As Bruce attempts to make a traditional Thanksgiving feast, his mice friends are making the process a bit difficult. They thank Bruce for each of the ingredients as they eat them or play in them before he can cook anything. Once it is time for dinner, they realize that there is nothing left to eat! But they are still grateful for what they have.


Pearl and Squirrel Give Thanks
Written by Cassie Ehrenberg 
Illustrated by Ryan Ehrenberg
New York : Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., 2020.

Pearl and Squirrel are best friends that live in a box and explore the city during the day. One day they are taught about Thanksgiving and what it means to be grateful. They start to practice being grateful by expressing their thanks for their favorite things as they go throughout their day, even during the difficult parts of the day. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...

Review: Fowl Play

  Fowl Play By Kristin O'Donnell Tubb New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2024. Fiction 277 pages. Still reeling from her beloved uncle's death, Chloe Alvarez is comforted and confused when at his last will and testament reading, Uncle Will gifts her his African Grey parrot, Charlie. Charlie has a robust vocabulary and loves to make Alexa requests for her favorite songs, but when she starts saying things like, "homicide," and "cyanide," Chloe becomes convinced that Uncle Will may have met his demise by murder instead of a genetic disease, as was previously thought. Ultimately, bringing in her brother, Grammy, and Uncle Frank (and of course Charlie,) Chloe's ragtag and adoring family support her search for answers ---going on stakeouts, engaging in fast pursuits, and searching for clues. But as the suspects stack up and the mystery grows, Chole will learn that the process of death and grieving is complicated, and in the end her Uncle Will's words that, ...

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry Edited by J. Patrick Lewis National Geographic, 2012, 183 p. Poetry In this beautiful poetry collection, the National Children's Poet Laureate, J. Patrick Lewis, has teamed up with the amazing photographers at National Geographic. The result is 200 poems about animals, all illustrated with stunning nature photography.  The poems are well chosen and include rhyming, free verse, and shape poetry. Some of the poems are funny, many are contemplative and all are nicely typeset on top of the full color photographs. One of my favorites is a shape poem about flamingos, with a photograph of a flock of flamingos which seem to be standing the the shape of a flamingo (how did they do that?).  Lewis ends the collection with a brief but interesting section about writing animal poetry.  This selection is sure to turn any animal lover into a poetry lover.