cover image Thanksgiving Book

Thanksgiving Book

Lucille Recht Penner. Hastings House Book Publishers, $14.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-8038-7228-8

Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday, but readers may not be aware that harvest festivals have taken place in almost every culture and country since grain was first sown. Penner, author of The Colonial Cookbook and The Honey Book, here gathers together woodcuts, art, oral literature (poems and prayers from the Indians) and texts from old cookbooks, Early American household accounts and harvest lore from around the world. She includes recipes for sweet-potato pie, preserved pumpkin chips, cranberry conserve and many other delights that she has adapted for the 20th century kitchen. This well-researched book is a treasury of information about our least-commercialized but most heartfelt celebration. (10-up)