Give Thanks For Sarah Hale



Plymouth Rock is smaller than I thought it would be.


Writers are often tasked with finding a new angle on a story. Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Speak, did just that with her informative children's book, Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving. While other authors play with different spins on turkey stories, Thanksgiving traditions, and pilgrims, Anderson took us instead to the root of making Thanksgiving a national holiday. I applaud Anderson's ingenuity. It's something I would have never given much thought.

Anderson credits writer / editor Sarah Hale for getting Thanksgiving declared a national holiday. Sarah Hale launched a massive letter-writing campaign that spanned 38 years before President Lincoln declared the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving. Up until that point, it was more a northeastern holiday that wasn't always celebrated on the same day. Some regions of the United States barely celebrated Thanksgiving at all. But Sarah Hale, herself a writer looking for fresh angles, convinced Lincoln that having all the states celebrate Thanksgiving on the same day would help unify the nation.

In the "Feast of Facts" at the end of the book, Anderson includes this interesting tidbit: Franklin Delano Roosevelt decided to change Thanksgiving to the third Thursday of November in 1939 and 1940. He thought this would help the economy by stretching the holiday shopping season. People were outraged. Twenty-three states refused to comply with what was being termed "Franksgiving." So in 1941, FDR decided the experiment was a failure and changed it back to the fourth Thursday.

The whole book is full of interesting facts. I could go on, but I don't want to give them all away here. Read the book!