6 Replies to “We can all thank Sarah Josepha Hale”
I didn’t get a chance to meet you at the Rutgers One on One (so many people!) but if I had, I’d planned to tell you that THANK YOU SARAH is hands-down my favorite picture book biography.
I was excited that my 7 year old came home Tuesday from school to tell me that the school librarian had read it to her. She’s been going around saying “Thank you, Sarah!”
Did the publisher subtitle it “the woman who saved Thanksgiving?” Not to take away from Hale’s accomplishments, which were many and genuine (do you have her The Good Housekeeper?), but as you no doubt know, she and President Lincoln were only the ones who codified it, made it official. To say she saved a holiday that I’ve never heard anyone suggest was in danger of dying out is like calling Charles Dickens “the man who saved Christmas.” Though I suppose “the woman who popularized Thanksgiving” is too scholarly-sounding for publishers.
I just finished reading your book Speak, you are an amazing writer! I’ve never connected so well with a character before, and it makes me yearn to find my voice just like Melinda did.
I didn’t get a chance to meet you at the Rutgers One on One (so many people!) but if I had, I’d planned to tell you that THANK YOU SARAH is hands-down my favorite picture book biography.
I was excited that my 7 year old came home Tuesday from school to tell me that the school librarian had read it to her. She’s been going around saying “Thank you, Sarah!”
Happy Thanksgiving!
Did the publisher subtitle it “the woman who saved Thanksgiving?” Not to take away from Hale’s accomplishments, which were many and genuine (do you have her The Good Housekeeper?), but as you no doubt know, she and President Lincoln were only the ones who codified it, made it official. To say she saved a holiday that I’ve never heard anyone suggest was in danger of dying out is like calling Charles Dickens “the man who saved Christmas.” Though I suppose “the woman who popularized Thanksgiving” is too scholarly-sounding for publishers.
Happily, I note, her house here in Philadelphia still stands.
Eat too much turkey/mashed potatoes/squash/various pies/ etc, etc…!!!!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Manna
PUMPKIN PIE! PUMPKIN PIE! PUMPKIN PIE AND WHIPPED CREAM!
Happy Thanksgiving
I just finished reading your book Speak, you are an amazing writer! I’ve never connected so well with a character before, and it makes me yearn to find my voice just like Melinda did.
Keep writing!
=O)