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Family, Mealtime, and Gratitude

Looking for picture books for Thanksgiving but everything's checked out? Below is a list of books about family meals and being thankful that are perfect for getting you into the Thanksgiving spirit. 

Stories About Family Dinners

As a family sits down to enjoy a meal, thoughts of those who provide the food, from farmers who plant and tend seeds to store clerks who sell groceries, fill each one with gratitude.

The blue table by illustrator Christopher Raschka

A two-time Caldecott Medalist celebrates family, community, generosity, and giving thanks in this stunning and innovative picture book set entirely around a blue table.

Feast for 10 by Cathryn Falwell

Numbers from one to ten are used to tell how members of a family shop and work together to prepare a meal.

Also available in: video

Celebrates the Native American tradition of sharing fry bread during family meals, in a story about family, history, culture, and traditions, both new and old.

Also available in: audiobook

In rhyming text, when the whole family and guests show up for the big dinner at Grandma's house, it becomes clear that the house is much too small to hold them all.

The little kids' table by Mary Ann McCabe Riehle

Everyone knows that the little kids table is the place to be for any holiday or family gathering. This silly, rhyming story follows a group of rambunctious cousins from table setting to dessert.

At the table where this family gathers, they share food, laughter, and, most of all, love. Readers of all ages are sure to delight in this joyful, expressive sing-along, slurping noodles, squishing tofu, and tapping chopsticks.

Stories About Thankfulness

A celebration of how the body's parts work together, from hands and eyes to lips and heart, allowing one to exist in the wondrous universe.

Discover one hundred ways to say thank you with this book, which explores the meaning of thankfulness. Join one boy as he thinks about the people in his life he'd like to thank, the many reasons to be grateful, and the different ways of showing affection and gratitude to the people we love.

Last stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña
Also available in: e-book | video

A young boy rides the bus across town with his grandmother and learns to appreciate the beauty in everyday things.

Thank you and good night by Patrick McDonnell

Maggie hosts a pajama party at which Clement, Alan Alexander, and Jean play a variety of fun games, tire themselves, and drift off to sleep, but not before sharing their gratitude.

The thank you book by Mary Lyn Ray

Explores the ways thankfulness can find expression throughout the day.

Thank you for me! by Marion Dane Bauer

Rhythmic text enumerates what various body parts can do, including hands to clap and a body to twirl, then expresses thanks for each of those parts-- and for the whole.

Thank you world by Alice B McGinty

Eight children from eight different countries express their thanks for many special things including the sun that colors the sky, breezes that lift kites, clouds that paint cotton pictures and send rain, and sparkling stars that "shine like Mommy's eyes."

The thankful book by Todd Parr

Easy-to-read text encourages the reader to find something every day for which to be thankful, from underwear that is just the right size to birthday cakes and the wishes they bring.

Thanks from the very hungry caterpillar by illustrator Eric Carle

The very hungry caterpillar celebrates some of the things it's thankful for.