Squanto's Journey: The Story of the First Thanksgiving »

JOSEPH BRUCHAC is a poet, storyteller, and author of more than sixty books for children and adults who has received many literary honors, including the American Book Award and the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award. He is of Abenaki and Slovak heritage, and lives in Greenfield Center, New York.

The first Thanksgiving celebration would not have been possible without one man—Squanto

Children's Literature

Squanto, friend of the Pilgrims, who taught them how to survive in the New World, has been remembered every November in classrooms across America. Little is known, by most children or adults, of his life and sacrifice. Now Joseph Bruchac tells us the whole story in a beautifully illustrated picture book. He sets the record straight about those hats and the food we continue to eat on Thanksgiving Day, but, more importantly, he makes us aware of how close we came to losing the colony. The book helps us to better appreciate, and to be forever grateful to, this man of honor, who believed in the wish of the Creator of All Things to bring together the white men and their families from over the ocean and the native people onto whose land they stumbled. Author's note and glossary are helpful. 2000, Harcourt Inc./Silver Whistle, Ages 6 to 10, $16.00. Reviewer: Margarette Reid