A list of Thanksgiving-related books appears from About.com—including An Old-fashioned Thanksgiving, by Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women. Also go here for other possibilities from such authors as Alcott, Rebecca Harding Davis (and a Thanksgiving interview with Mark Twain).
An Old-fashioned Thanksgiving may delight many parents and children, and what’s more, you can download the public domain version for free from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks.net and elsewhere. Also try the pub domain sites for other books on the About.com list. Shown is a modern HarperCollins edition of An Old-fashioned Thanksgiving. Here is the plot as summed up on the Reading to Know site:
“On the day before Thanksgiving the Bassett family receives a delivered letter informing them that Mrs. Bassett’s mother is gravely ill. She and Mr. Bassett must fly out of the house to tend to her mother, leaving her six children behind to care for themselves and the house. Tilly, the eldest daughter, decides that on Thanksgiving day she will be in charge of putting together Thanksgiving dinner in the absence of their mother. The whole story revolves primarily around Thanksgiving Day itself and the activities the children involved themselves in and preparation of the meal. Without spoiling anything, the book concludes on a happy note, although perhaps the dinner did not turn out well as Tilly might have hoped.”
Related: About.com’s classics for online reading. About also has an entire section on classic lit and a guide to sites offering free electronic books.
