Thanksgiving on Thursday is the twenty-seventh installment to the Magic Tree House series.
Plot[]
Jack and Annie travel in their magic tree house to the year 1621, where they celebrate the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians in the New Plymouth Colony.
Chapters[]
- What Feast?
- Shh!
- Wow?
- We Fish!
- Eels and Clams
- Good Work
- Arm Exercises
- The Feast
- Good Day
- Thankful
Plot[]
On Thanksgiving Thursday before 9 A.M., Jack and Annie were going to leave for their grandmother’s. However, Annie felt the magic tree house returning. When they arrived, they found yet another rhyme from Morgan:
To find a special magic,
When work and toil are done,
Gather all together,
Turn three worlds into one.
The book was entitled A Feast to Remember. Jack didn’t know what that meant, nor where and when they were going.
The two found themselves dressed as pilgrims. This was Massachusetts when the first pilgrims came to America on the Mayflower. Jack and Annie already know about this from a school play. However, they needed a plan when they were to meet Squanto, Priscilla Alden, Miles Standish, and Governor Bradford. The village was in the distance, but a dog barking alerted the kids to some men. As Jack tried to run, he got caught in a hunting trap!
The men freed him and everyone else came to laugh with them. It was everyone they were hoping to meet, but they got confused by their modern terms. Jack said they sailed with John Smith when they were babies, but their parents from a northern village sent them her so they can learn how to grow corn. Squanto said he remembered them and said they welcome all children. Just then, Chief Massasoit arrived with the rest of the Wampanoag men, which is a lot.
Priscilla was worried that there wouldn’t be enough food for the harvest feast. Since Jack can’t hunt, she has the two kids fish for eels and clams. That, however, was too difficult and mean, mainly due to the freezing water. Priscilla offered them a fire (cooking the first Thanksgiving turkey) to warm up while they carried the vegetables back. Then she had them cook the roots and herbs, mentioning the loss of family the previous winter.
In the distance, men fired muskets to exercise their arms, Jack misunderstood at first. Priscilla requested that the two put the turkey on the platter. Unfortunately, while they did that, they accidentally burned it by dropping it in the fire. However, it turns all the houses made turkeys and other meats. All the people brought their own food. At the feast, Governer Bradford gives thanks to Squanto and his people for their help. He said the magic of community makes three worlds, including Jack and Annie’s, into one. Annie realizes that their mission was over. So after they ate, Squanto led them into the forest, giving them corn seeds. He revealed that when he remembered, he was actually put himself in their place by remembering when he was a slave in Europe.
Back home, the kids put the pouch of corn seeds on the floor and left, remarking about the hard life of the pilgrims.