While reading the History Smashers book about The Mayflower, I remembered this Baby-Sitters Club book that I read as a kid. In Claudia and the First Thanksgiving, they put on a Thanksgiving play at the elementary school. They do lots of research to make it more historically accurate, but then parents get mad and make them change it to a “traditional” Thanksgiving story. They stealthily write “Censored” on all the posters.
That’s what I remembered from my childhood reading of this book. But I couldn’t remember what they did in the play that made people mad. I didn’t have my childhood copy, so I looked up the book and downloaded the Kindle edition.
Claudia and the First Thanksgiving felt surprisingly relevant to 2021. When I was a kid, I remember wondering why adults would censor and protest a Thanksgiving play with more historical accuracy. I’m now an adult with kids, and I definitely recognized those parents who are protesting more historically accurate critiques of those who came before us. 25 years later, we’re still having the same problems.
As far as what enraged parents and some faculty about their Thanksgiving play? They brought up women’s rights. They also stated that not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving and Native Americans observe a day of mourning. They pointed out differences between then and now. They got to keep the more accurate costumes and foods. I guess those didn’t anger the parents.
I’m actually looking at the book cover right now, and wondering if the cover artist read it. Lol.
I hadn’t read a Baby-sitters Club book since middle school, and didn’t have super high expectations for Claudia and the First Thanksgiving to hold up for an adult, but this book was kind of amazing. I remembered a surprising amount of weird details, like when Claudia decides to stir marmalade into her oatmeal, but also considers the option of grape jelly.
One thing that surprised me a little bit was the release date. Claudia and the First Thanksgiving was published in November of 1995, when I would have been in 7th grade. I’m guessing that I must have read this book very soon after its release. I think I started reading BSC books in 4th grade and kept reading them through 8th grade, so this was relatively late in my Baby-sitters Club reading era. I had definitely read at least one hundred Baby-sitters Club books in my life by age 14. I definitely learned about lots of things from BSC books, including diabetes and autism. Re-reading this book made me think we could understand each other better if only everyone read more books.
I’ve sometimes lamented my childhood reading era, and the fact that I grew up an enthusiastic reader in a pre-Harry Potter world. There didn’t seem to be as many new children’s books as there are now. I read mostly older books, but also lots of Baby-sitters Club Books. Maybe it was better than I realized.
