The Thanksgiving Blessing board and picture books by Meadow Rue Merrill are engaging illustrated books for children one to three and four to seven years old, respectively. These colorful pages are about families celebrating Thanksgiving. Molly’s cousins Jacob and Sammy, aunties and uncles, grammies and grampies, neighbors, and friends all gather together at Aunt Jenny and Uncle Gerry’s home, Lantern Hill Farm. Molly worries that she brought nothing to share like so many others did. But as Aunt Jenny leads everyone in reading the words of the hymn “Old Hundredth,” Molly discovers that giving her thanks to God is one of the greatest things she can share.

Holidays are an opportunity for celebration and a time to create family traditions and memories. Yet often the emphasis shifts from the reason for the holiday to making the children the center of the celebration. The Lantern Hill Farm series of picture books and board books is designed to provide parents and grandparents with entertaining stories with easy to recreate family activities that allow children to be part of the holiday but not the center of it.