How Many Days to America?

How Many Days To America?
By Eve Bunting
Bunting, Eve, and Beth Peck. How Many Days to America?: a Thanksgiving Story. New York: Clarion, 1988. Print.


This story is about one family's struggle to move to America. I think this story helps students understand the meaning of Thanksgiving because it shows that people still today are celebrating and giving thanks for their own arrival to America. This book best suits a history class. It gives kids an insight on the different types of people who have moved to America as well as why they did so. I think the reading level of this book would be third grade. I say this because it contains a lot of cultural information but is not too large.
Activity: There are not many activities students could do with this book because it simply recounts one family's difficult journey to America. However, to reinforce what they learned in the story (one specific reason this family moved to America) I would ask them to look up a reason why someone else came to America. For example, in this story it was because of the government- but many people came to find jobs, religious freedom, education, etc. They could do research online or ask a relative.