Description
Experience the true story from American history about the spiritual roots and historical beginnings of Thanksgiving.
This entertaining and historical story shows that the actual hero of Thanksgiving was God.
In 1608, English traders came to Massachusetts and captured a twelve-year-old Native American Indian, Squanto, and sold him into slavery. He was raised by Christians and taught faith in God.
Ten years later he was sent home to America. Upon arrival, he learned an epidemic had wiped out his entire village.
But God had plans for Squanto.
God delivered a Thanksgiving miracle: an English-speaking Indian living in the exact place where the Pilgrims landed in a strange new world.
From Publishers Weekly: This paper-over-board picture book biography approaches the holiday from an evangelical point of view. Beginning with Squanto’s kidnapping, at age 12, by the Spanish from his Patuxet village in 1608, Metaxas (The Birthday ABC) follows him to M laga, Spain. His friends are sold into slavery, “but God had another plan for Squanto.” Monks purchase Squanto and teach him their beliefs, then entrust him to a kind man in London until he can find passage back to America. Finally, in 1618, he arrives home, only to find his village wiped out by disease. The discovery tests Squanto’s faith but does not destroy it (“As he pondered the great sorrow in his heart, he talked to God”). When Squanto comes to the aid of starving English newcomers, Governor Bradford predicts the hero’s role: “Perhaps God has sent you to be our Joseph.” In the end, Bradford and Squanto both give thanks to God for using Squanto in “such a way that would bless the whole world for centuries to come.” Of all the offerings this season, this account comes closest to describing the holiday’s religious roots and historical beginnings, even though many may argue with the book’s politics and/or theology. Stirnweis’s portraits tend to be stiff and inconsistent, but his realistic renderings of M laga and London architecture are atmospheric. The culminating illustration portrays Squanto in a pose like Christ on the Mount.
Eric Metaxas is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Bonhoeffer, Amazing Grace, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About God (But Were Afraid to Ask), Everything Else You Always Wanted to Know About God, and thirty children’s books. He is founder and host of Socrates in the City in New York City, where he lives with his wife and daughter. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, Washington Post, Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Marks Hill Review, and First Things. He has written for VeggieTales and Rabbit Ears Productions, earning three Grammy nominations for Best Children’s Recording.
- Age Range: 6 – 9 years
- Grade Level: 1 – 4
- Paperback: 40 pages
- ISBN-10: 1400320399
- ISBN-13: 9781400320394
- Product Dimensions: 8 x 0.1 x 8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
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