Harvest Days: Giving Thanks Around the World

by Kate Depalma, Martina Peluso (Illustrator)

Explore harvest festivals from around the globe! Lyrical, rhyming text and lush, detailed artwork from Italian artist Martina Peluso immerse young readers in some of the most ancient traditions in the world. Nine pages of rich, educational endnotes dive deep with more information about the 12 cultures explored in the book and invite young readers to ask questions about food and the labor that produces it.

Genres: Picture Books, Nonfiction, Thanksgiving, Holiday, Food, Cultural, Childrens

40 pages, Hardcover

Published September 20, 2022

Reviews

[Katie Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little nuggets of information about different harvest festivals celebrated throughout the world. I think this would be a great book for most library collections and could be a solid readaloud near American Thanksgiving, particularly if you’re looking for a more inclusive approach. The lack of a “further reading” or source list really seems like a missed opportunity to me. I was really conflicted between a 3 and a 4 for my rating, I’d say I’m leaning more towards 4 because this is fascinating and I learned a great deal.

[Gabrielle Stoller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know libraries struggle with texts about Thanksgiving and harvest. This is a good one that focuses on the multicultural aspects of harvest, gathering, and thanksgiving. And not just the American accounting of it.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hadn't even heard of most of these festivals until I read this. So fun and cool to see how other cultures celebrate the harvest season!

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of harvest and nature festivals from around the world. The bulk of the pages in this picture book have a short rhyming blurb about each festival. At the end of the book is a half-page, more detailed description of each. We enjoyed the information and the well-researched and cute illustrations.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely book that discusses different harvest/thanksgiving festivals and holidays around the world. A nice starting point if teachers and caregivers want to de-emphasize the American mythology that Thanksgiving was just about the Native Americans celebrating with the pilgrims and instead share the ways in which harvests are celebrated around the world.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

With its colorful illustrations filled with depictions of various individuals celebrating harvest, this picture book [a 3.5 for me] shows how 12 different cultures give thanks for the food that will keep them alive for the next year. While the holiday may not be called Thanksgiving, it's clear that gratitude abounds when the harvest is plentiful. The rhyming text expresses the joy of these special days while accompanying text explains each celebration with some detail about some of the practices on that day with stops in Bolivia, Ghana, Morocco, and Iran, among others. It's clear that the book's creators spent time researching the subject as the text and images are culturally-specific, and the food, clothing, and festivities themselves seem as accurate as possible. Back matter includes additional information on these festivals as well as a timeline showing when they occur. This picture book would make a fine addition to a classroom in which the teacher wants to encourage curiosity in students as well as foster an awareness that Thanksgiving or the idea of being thankful for abundant crops isn't a particularly new idea or one associated only with the United States. From a town where ripe tomatoes are thrown at others to Barbados's gratitude that the time for unpaid labor is done for the year, the book demonstrates just how interesting our world is.

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this rhyming tale, various cultures around the world celebrate harvest festivals—Chuseok, Dozynki, Pongal, Martes de Challa, Homowo, Crop Over, Sukkot, Thanksgiving Day, Mehregan, La Tomatina, Vaisakhi, and St. Martin’s Day—with traditional foods, customs, and rituals. By whatever name it’s known, giving thanks for nature’s bounty is a timeless, cross-cultural tradition. Engaging illustrations depict the many types of celebrations of harvest season around the globe. End pages include a calendar of harvest festivals and frequently asked questions about harvest season, celebrations, and traditions, plus more information about each festival depicted in the story. If a traditional Thanksgiving is objectionable, as it has become for a growing number of Americans, this book provides plenty of ideas for creating one’s own way to give thanks for Earth’s bounty.

[Betty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this colorful book that explores 12 different harvest festivals celebrated around the world (Liberia, South Korea, and Iran, to name a few). These festivals all give thanks for the food that sustains them and for the hands and animals responsible for growing the food.

The illustrations are magnificent! They are sure to make everyone smile. Be sure to take your time looking at each colorful spread. They reflect the foods and clothes of each culture.

The last several pages provide further information on the festivals and a timeline showing when they are observed. This is the opportunity to point out that other cultures have their version of our Thanksgiving holiday.

I received an early digital copy from the publisher. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

[Roshni Patel · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a series of beautiful digitally rendered double spreads, Harvest Days describes twelve different traditions around the world in rhyming couplets. Each double spread is accompanied with sidebars which quickly help the reader understand the scene and the couplets for each holiday and pronunciations that make new vocabulary approachable. The thorough research put into this book shows in the backmatter, which further details each event by describing the people, history, beliefs, and food. Additional backmatter materials include a calendar of when these holidays are celebrated, questions for kids to think about how their food is sourced, and notes from both DePalma and Peluso.

This review was featured in The Horn Book on Nov. 02, 2022.

[Roben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harvest festivals are celebrated all around the world. And in different seasons. The Pilgrims - and the Americans - certainly didn't invent harvest festivals.

South Korea; Poland; Tamil Nadu, India; Bolivia; Ghana; Barbados; Morocco; Liberia; Iran; Spain (a food fight with over-ripe tomatoes); Punjab, India; and Germany are the countries represented in the book.

A timetable of different harvest festivals is presented at the end along with a few questions about how the reader celebrates. I liked that they asked about a favorite food and then suggested tracing the route the food would take to get to their table.

There is also a longer explanation of each festival. An excellent book to put Thanksgiving into a broader cultural perspective.

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strong four stars for this further entry to this series, looking here at traditional thanksgiving and harvest day celebrations. So the Spanish waste a lorryload of tomatoes, Poles and Slavs carry the last sheaf of corn around in a parade, Jews build a temporary structure to celebrate a holy shelter of yore. We get a double-page spread for each one, with four rhymed lines of text (added to by pronunciation guides and a small footnote), and then further detail in the more text-based addenda later. A fun look at other cultures, and an attractive one, too.

[Stefanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a true gem. Rhyming text makes it perfect for a story time, but it is so much more... Each double page spread features a harvest festival from a different culture. The phonetic spelling is given beneath the text so you can pronounce the foreign words correctly. There is a small explanation of the celebration on the page as well. There is extensive back matter that explains each tradition in more detail. The illustrations are rich in detail and color. It is a beautiful treasure that highlights harvest seasons around the globe.

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Decided to incorporate a readaloud into a new class I was seeing in the library (a global studies class) ahead of Thanksgiving but to showcase the books we have that support his curriculum, so I borrowed it on Sora and read aloud to the group!

Around the world, Depalma shares the harvest celebrations from Barbados to Spain, Poland to Ghana with a rhyme and cultural understanding, it's about giving thanks and blessings for the harvest in their respective countries. Loved opening up the period with that.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learn about how 12 different countries celebrate their harvest days. This book really highlights the importance of the harvest throughout history and different cultures. Though traditions may differ, the heart of thanksgiving for food to ensure survival is what all cultures have had in common. This book highlighted the historical context and background of each celebration and how today, though our modern times are not as tied into the seasons, we can still appreciate these holidays and traditions.

[TheRetiredSchoolLibrarian |Mrs. Ferraris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: Twelve different cultures from around the world have their own unique ways of expressing gratitude.

Comments: Pronunciation guides are provided, along with information boxes that offer additional details. Each culture examined includes a brief explanation. The final pages feature a timeline showing when the cultures celebrate, as well as 12 more in-depth information entries at the back.

I found this book very interesting. I believe the back pages should have included a globe indicating the locations of the countries or a map in the country's book section.

Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗

[The Silvan Reverie | Sarah Street · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! It's a nice celebration of 12 different cultures around the world and how they celebrate the harvest. The pages contain a nice narrative to read through but also rich educational material for children to engage with, especially in the last couple of pages in the book. The entire book feels warm and inviting and beautifully celebrates a variety of cultural expression.

***Note: I was given a review copy of this book via Publisher's Spotlight. Opinions are my own.

[Erin]

Food, celebrations, and gratitude are all front and center in this book about different harvest festivals. While the main text consists of simple rhyming couplets, there are additional informative asides and backmatter for context. A wide variety of celebrations and commemorations are represented, which helps to decentralize American Thanksgiving and instead focus on the fact that many cultures celebrate the harvest in different ways and for different reasons.

[Teresa]

We put this in storage Thanksgiving, because that will be the most likely time that people might want it, but the only mention of Thanksgiving in November is re: Liberia and the people who went there from the US.
Good to have so many cultures and customs represented and various times of the year -- might some be based on location/hemisphere? I don't hink that's explicitly addressed. (Timeline calendar with locations, but no map)

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a beautiful book that looks at harvest holidays from countries and cultures all over the world. It talks about the celebrations, origins, foods, and traditions of all these unique and beautiful holiday. I had no idea so many countries and cultures celebrated so many different harvest festivals. This will definitely be added to our Thanksgiving book collection!

[Panda Incognito · Rating 3 out of 5]

This multicultural interest book covers various harvest holidays from around the world. The illustrations are nice and I learned a lot, but I wish that the additional details shared about each celebration at the back had been integrated into the main text. You have to read a lot of the same information again to get to the new tidbits in these summaries.

[createitlibrarian (Amanda) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how this book talks about how people celebrate the harvest around the world. I think it's very important for kids to be connected to how food is brought to their table. I'm going to read a little bit from this book each week this fall (since the kids are little and have a very short attention span).

[Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great rhyming, which is perfect for storytime! The backmatter talks about harvest festivals over the centuries as well as 4-5 bullet pointes for each of the diverse harvest festivals mentioned on the full-page spreads.

Love this book as an alternative to the Pilgrims and Indians Thanksgiving myth!!

[Em · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book with layers that will grow with my baby. It has a great rhythm for him to enjoy now with great facts for him to enjoy later, and a wonderful section at the end expanding upon the facts given in rhyme for the whole family to learn. It will surely become a harvest season tradition for us!

[Erikka · Rating 5 out of 5]

I definitely plan to add this to our collection! There are so many examples of ways to give thanks across cultures. I also kind of love that U.S. Thanksgiving traditions are pretty much skipped over, rather than centered or glorified. I wasn’t sure if that would be easy to find in children’s books about Thanksgiving.

[Mrs Heidrich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this idea for a picture book and going to go put it on preorder! So much great information not only in the book, but in the back matter for more detail as well! Gorgeous, detailed illustrations with lots for discussion. We need something like this in our library!

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for kids, sharing the types of harvest/giving thanks celebrations found in cultures around the world in an interesting and fun way. My oldest grandson (10) read it to his siblings and me on Thanksgiving weekend. I loved it!

[Ellon · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars (It was amazing).

I think I found the book for next year's Fall Fest! I love how the book has short, rhyming text about each tradition but then additional information in the back matter. The illustrations are bright and colorful. I can see many uses for a text like this!

[Amy Goldstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I learned so much from reading this book. 12 harvest celebrations from all over the globe are described in rhyme. End notes include a great deal of back matter about each celebration. A wonderful book to share with my students.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Accessible compilation of info about harvest festivals around the world. It would be a great way to expand kids' horizons beyond the traditional, and usually inaccurate, telling of the first American thanksgiving.

[Thomasin Propson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barefoot Books is LOVELY! Will look for more books printed by them.

Value/importance of info: 3.5 - 4 stars
Illustrations: 5
Re-readability: 3.5 - 4
Enjoyable: 3.5 - 4

It's not a story but a warm view into worldwide harvest festivals. LOVE the illustrations!