Review #50: Give Thanks to the Lord

Dad:  Happy Thanksgiving!  Today we're looking at "Give Thanks to the Lord."  It is written by Karma Wilson of "Bear Snores On" fame.  And guys, do the pictures look familiar to you?  Think of our very, very first Bookie Woogie review ever...
Gracie (age 9):  "The Dog Who Belonged to No One"!
Isaac (age 11):  Ah, that's it!
Dad:  Yep, Amy Bates illustrated this one as well.
Gracie:  The art is really sketchy and loose.
Dad:  I love how she's not worried about showing the sketches underneath the paint.  It's great... so scribble-y.
Lily (age 6):  They are mostly all warm colors.
Isaac:  It's all reds, yellows, oranges.
Dad:  What do those colors remind us of besides warmness?
Lily:  Fall.
Dad:  Even though the season is cold, all the warm colors make you feel cozy inside.
Isaac:  My favorite picture is the one with the hot chocolate.  The picture looks so warm and awesome.
Dad:  Notice how the kid in the front looks sharper, and all the other people behind him kind of blend into the background...
Isaac:  I know why!  If you look, there's all this white around the boy that makes him pop out.  It makes it easy to tell he's there.
Dad:  You can tell he's supposed to be the focus.
Isaac:  But you don't really notice the white unless you look hard.
Dad:  I've started doing that in my pictures a bit.
Gracie:  My favorite picture is the last one.  The mommy is carrying the little boy upstairs.  And he is hugging her.  And it looks like he is sleeping.  And he is happy.
Isaac:  What is your favorite picture, Lily?
Lily:  I like the one where the boy and the grandpa are full.  And the dog is licking the plate.
Dad:  Our Mom wouldn't be happy with the dog for that.
Lily:  That dog is on every picture.
Dad:  I never even noticed that.  Oop - except this one.  He's in almost every picture.
Gracie:  The dog is my favorite character.
Lily:  He looks like Marley.
Dad:  How do you know Marley?
Lily:  I don't know.
Isaac:  Commercials.
Gracie:  The pictures really matched what the story said.  She somehow managed to think of the most perfect way to show everything.
Dad:  So tell me about the story...
Gracie:  The story has lots of poetry in it.
Lily:  It's a poem.
Gracie:  And it had alliteration!  "Food and family and fun."
Dad:  What was the poem about?
Lily:  Thanksgiving.
Isaac:  Food.
Gracie:  Fall.
Isaac:  Food, pie...
Gracie:  Leaves.
Isaac:  Apple pie!
Lily:  They talked about being full.
Isaac:  Pumpkin pie!  Whipcream!  I never had as much whipcream on my pumpkin pie as that kid.
Dad:  Isaac, you are Food-Boy.
Isaac:  That's because I like all food.
Dad:  Speaking of pie, you made a pumpkin pie this year, didn't you Isaac.
Gracie:  Ahhhh, that was heavenly.
Dad:  It's like Karma Wilson sat down and said, "What comes to mind when I think about Thanksgiving."
Isaac:  Like, her ten favorite things about Thanksgiving.
Dad:  Her favorite things seem to be similar to our favorite things.
Gracie:  And the boy is putting olives on his fingers.  I love doing that!
Isaac:  I have a confession to make.  I can't stand olives.  They make me gag.
Dad:  The kids in the book pull a wishbone.  Do you guys ever do that?
Isaac:  I'm the unluckiest person in the world with wishbones.  I never win against Gracie.  Or anyone, really.
Gracie:  I always get the knob.  I always get the wish.
Dad:  And you guys played in the leaves recently.  This book has all the fun fall stuff we do!
Gracie:  This year I hid in our pile of leaves, then popped up and scared Elijah.
Isaac:  I dove off our hill and landed in the leaves.  Dad made this pile by the hill, so I ran and jumped off the hill into the pile.
Lily:  I love the hill.
Dad:  You guys are lucky to have a cool hill in the yard.  It's good for sledding in the winter and leaf diving in the fall.
Isaac:  The author was good at capturing Thanksgiving things.
Dad:  So you think this is a good Thanksgiving book, even though there aren't pilgrim and turkey characters in it?
Isaac:  There's a turkey in it.  Not a turkey running around.  But there's a turkey!
Dad:  Yum yum.  Poor turkey.
Lily:  I like this book because it's about God.
Dad:  Do you remember what we were talking about earlier?  Why isn't it called "ThanksBEING Day"?  Why is it "ThanksGIVING"?
Gracie:  Because it's "Giving Thanks."  The words are just backwards.  But who are you giving thanks to?  You have to be giving thanks to somebody.  And we are giving thanks to God.
Dad:  Yep.  The point of the day is not "thankfulness" itself.  Not just being thankful.  The point is the One to whom we give the thanks.
Isaac:  God.
Dad:  So did Karma Wilson get it right?
Gracie:  "Give Thanks to the Lord."
Dad:  So, what things do we have to be thankful to God for?
Lily:  He made my friends.
Gracie:  Our family.
Lily:  I'm thankful for my family because they take care of me and play with me and they are my friends.
Isaac:  Pretty much everything.  Thank God for everything.
Dad:  But give me some specifics.
Isaac:  Pumpkin pie.
Gracie:  I'm thankful for Bookie Woogie.
Dad:  So then, tell me what you think -- what does God have to do with Bookie Woogie?
Isaac:  He gave us the idea for it.  He gave us our brains.
Gracie:  He gives us the inspiration to make the pictures.
Dad:  Your creativity.
Gracie:  And He gave the people who made these books the ideas for their books.  So actually, He has a LOT to do with Bookie Woogie.
Dad:  Good conclusions!
Isaac:  This is a good book.  I like this book.

throwing leaves, by Lily

dog spies pumpkin pie on the table, by Isaac

leaf pile, by Gracie

Author: Karma Wilson
Illustrator: Amy June Bates
Published, 2007: Zonderkidz
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