Thanksgiving is Here!by Diane Goode
Whoops ... I almost let the holiday pass without taking note of this pungent tribute to our favorite excuse to pig out party.
You're not buying this one for the kind words about going to grandma's house for turkey. You're buying it for the mad scramble of relatives depicted in all their quibbling, gossiping, nosy glory. Kids dive bomb the table, lovers woo, old ladies quarrel and the older men try to catch a few zzzz ... all rendered with a deliciously wicked eye for detail.
Set at roughly the turn of the last century, Goode's given it a timeless feel with send-ups of family stereotypes, each with a storyline that threads through the crowded illustrations. Nobody's left out, not the family bookworm or the screetchy violin prodigy, and even an uncle's toupee is served up.
By the time Grandma and Grandpa collapse in their chairs after the last good-byes, you're as cheerfully pooped as they.
And while we're on the subject of family feasts and Diane Goode, she's lent her satiric gift to Mind Your Manners!
Goode found an 1802 etiquette text for children in an antique store and was inspired to research early Americans, what they wore or ate or how they conducted themselves. Then she dreamt up a stiffly polite family invited to dinner with the barbaric Abbotts.
It'd be a great way to teach table manners if your own little savages aren't slobbering in front of the TV. I just toss food to the ravenous beasts and run for cover.
Hope your Turkey Day wasn't as fowl. Hee hee.
Rating (both books): *\*\*\
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