Thanksgiving on Thursday (Magic Tree House)

Osborne, M. P. (2002). Thanksgiving on thursday. New York, NY: Random House.

Series Book - Magic Tree House

Exposition (the beginning of the story, establishment of setting and characters):  On Thanksgiving Thursday, eight year old Jack and 7 year old sister Annie visit the magic tree house in the forest, which they had discovered a while back, before they go to visit their grandmother for the holiday.      

Conflict (the problem(s) faced by the characters):  Morgan le Fay, the magical librarian of Camelot, leaves them messages in the tree house with problems that they have to solve, and on this day their message says, “To find a special magic, when work and toil are done, gather all together, turn three worlds into one” (Osborne, 2002).

Rising Action (events in the story leading up to the climax):  Jack and Annie are transported to Plymouth in the 1620s with the Pilgrims; once they are discovered, they tell the Pilgrims their parents sent them to Plymouth to learn how to plant corn, Squanto assures them that he remembers them as babies coming on the Mayflower, then Jack and Annie befriend Priscilla and the other Pilgrims and try to help them prepare for their Thanksgiving feast for the Wampanoag Indians. 

Climax (the culmination of events in the story, point of highest reader interest):  At the feast, Governor Bradford gives a speech and tells them they have joined the worlds of Jack and Annie, the Pilgrims, and the Wampanoag Indians into one; Jack and Annie realize they have solved the riddle on Morgan le Fay’s message, and they have discovered the magic of community.

Falling Action (events leading to the solving of the story’s problems):  After the feast, Squanto teaches them how to plant corn and tells them that the reason he told the Pilgrims that he remembered them in the beginning was because he recalled a time when he was a slave in a new land and how he felt different and afraid and that he saw that in their eyes and wanted to help them; he advises them to always be kind to those who feel different and afraid in the future.

Resolution (how events and problems of the story are solved): After writing Squanto’s words of advice in their notebook, Jack and Annie are transported back to the tree house, they add Squanto’s bag of corn to their treasures from other travels, and they realize that if the Pilgrims could be so thankful for having so little, then they should really be thankful, and they were.

Chapter books only (List two strong literary qualities displayed in the book and write one sentence about each quality): Mary Pope Osborne uses setting to transport the reader back in time to when the Pilgrims were celebrating their very first Thanksgiving feast with the Wampanoag Indians; she gives great detail to Plymouth so that the reader can easily imagine what it was like being among the Pilgrims and Indians on that very special day.  Osborne also uses the literary quality of accuracy to constantly throughout the book teach the reader real facts about that first Thanksgiving feast without the reader really even realizing it; whether Jack is looking up something in his research book or Jack and Annie are learning something directly from one of the Pilgrims or Indians, the reader is exposed to valuable factual information in a way that is much more enjoyable than one doing research in a textbook, the Internet, or any other source.