Review #1

Tilly the nearsighted mole accidentally sends recipe cards to her forest friends instead of invitations to her Thanksgiving dinner. Each friend brings the dish and all have a lovely celebration. *this could also be used to discuss a vegetarian Thanksgiving.

Review #2

I do try to find books that have characters that are neurodiverse without that being specifically stated but just a part of the story.

Read and decide for yourselves but I claim Tilly as part of Team NeuroSpicy and love how her friends work together with her.

*in that framework I do wish it was just Tilly’s Thanksgiving Dinner but since this is my interpretation it is unfair to judge the title.

Rating- 5 stars that you definitely *had* but cannot find. ❤️ ( )

Part of the I Can Read beginning reader series, Silly Tilly's Thanksgiving Dinner is one of three Lillian Hoban holiday titles devoted to the adventures of this scatterbrained mole - the other two being Silly Tilly's Valentine and Silly Tilly and the Easter Bunny - and is an example of a particular type, in the world of children's literature: the story of a constantly mistaken heroine/hero, whose misadventures are meant to amuse. In this case, Silly Tilly is constantly forgetting things, sometimes in the middle of a task. Fortunately, her mistake, in sending out recipe cards rather than invitations, results in a happy Thanksgiving meal after all.

Somehow, although I could see what Hoban was doing here, with her tale, I wasn't as amused as I'd expected to be. This sort of things has been done far better, in Peggy Parish's Amelia Bedelia series, for instance, in which an overly literal maid is constantly getting into scrapes; or Jackie French Koller's Mole And Shrew chapter-books, which features a similarly literal mole. Silly Tilly's Thanksgiving Dinner probably would have gotten two stars, in fact, were I not so attached to Hoban's illustrative style (I grew up on her Arthur books, not to mention the Frances stories!), and impressed with the fact that it is a vegetarian-friendly Thanksgiving story. Still, it's a low three stars, and I recommend this primarily to those looking specifically for vegetarian holiday tales. ( )

Silly, fun, light-hearted but with a good message. I liked the ending of the book—even though she was forgetful, her friends helped her out and everything ended up fine.

9179