Pilgrim Cat by Carole Antoinette Peacock and illustrated by Doris Ettinger (Albert Whitman 2004) is a historical fiction picture book written in prose. It does not read as well as Tattered Sails (reviewed here), but it does provide a different perspective on Thanksgiving. It tells a story of traveling on the Mayflower, settling in Plymouth, working, and celebrating the first Thanksgiving through the perspective of a girl who adopts the ship’s cat.
The young girl, Faith Barrett, gets ill and the cat helps comfort her. As Squanto teaches her to plant corn, the cat sneaks some of the fish from his bucket. Although the book is full of historic details, it comes across as a story about a girl and her cat, a nicely accessible way of approaching history.
Our homeschool American History learning happened to correlate to the Thanksgiving Holiday! We recently finished learning about the pilgrims, which works out very well for us since we’re taking the next week slow, as a holiday from lots of school work.
