Duck and Hippo Give Thanks by Jonathan London

Hippo is raking leaves when Duck comes to visit. Hippo invites him to come over the next day, Thanksgiving Day, for a meal. Duck and Hippo then travel around town getting supplies for the Thanksgiving meal and invite Pig, Elephant and Turtle also. Hippo is so excited to have a good, old fashioned Thanksgiving.

When the time comes for his friends to be there, they are late! When they finally arrive, they have all brought something to share for Hippo’s Thanksgiving meal- expect none of the things they brought are “good, old fashioned” Thanksgiving things. Hippos decides that his friends being happy is more important than having things exactly as he imagined. They have a wonderful meal together.

This cute story has adorable illustrations that will get you in the fall and Thanksgiving mood. I also like addressing expectations of a holiday versus the reality. Sometimes kids- and maybe more so adults!- can have a perfect vision for what they want, but become disappointed when reality is different. Worth a read!

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1. Hippo is very generous to invite lots of friends to his Thanksgiving. Does your family ever invite friends to Thanksgiving?
2. When have you been disappointed like Hippo, thinking something (a holiday, birthday, etc.) would be different than it turned out to be?
3. When things turn out differently than you think they will, how can you still be happy about things?