Number 3200: Celebrate Thanksgiving Today and Every Day With John Bucchino's Grateful

Last year, in recognition of Thanksgiving, the lovely Nicole started a write-off focusing on gratitude. If you’re looking for a smile over the next few days, I recommend reading the entries and reflecting on the blessings in your own life. This year, I decided to aim for reaching my 3200nd post here on Thanksgiving and commemorating it with Grateful: A Song of Giving Thanks, a picture book that wonderfully expresses an outlook on the world that should not be limited to just late November.

Grateful is a part of The Julie Andrews Collection, which includes books “that nurture the imagination and celebrate a sense of wonder.” Naturally, as someone who counts Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music as favorite movies, the Julie Andrews recommendation intrigued me, but I came to this book primary through another avenue: Art Garfunkel.

While the song was written by John Bucchino and the book is illustrated by Anna-Liisa Hakkarainen, I became familiar with it more than a decade ago when Garfunkel recorded it for his Across America special. This book includes a new recording of the song by him. The words in the book and on the CD are the same, so it’s easy to listen and follow along in the book, letting the gentle piano music with hints of violin complement Hakkarainen’s warm illustrations while the words float along on Garfunkel’s honeyed vocals. Additionally, for the musically inclined, the final four pages of the book feature sheet music for the song.

Aside from a couple of two-page spreads, the book follows the format of painting on the left, words on the right. Most pages have two or four lines, while a few have one or five. The words are general enough that most of them feel fairly universal, mentioning things that usually come up in a Thanksgiving reflection: family, friends, faith, along with earthier needs like shelter. Several different children of various nationalities appear together on one page, emphasizing how many people have these same things to be thankful for.

The lyrics themselves aren’t affixed to any particular time of year, while the illustrations move us along from autumn to winter, spring and finally summer. Still, while the actual holiday of Thanksgiving is never mentioned or depicted, this is an ideal book for the holiday as thanksgiving is its whole purpose. Because of that, I think my favorite painting is the two-page spread of the girl wandering through a fiery autumnal landscape, her blue coat standing out amidst all the blazing orange. This accompanies the first iteration of the chorus, the simple “Grateful, grateful, truly grateful I am. Grateful, grateful, truly blessed and duly grateful.”

My favorite lines, meanwhile, are probably these ones right near the middle: “I feel a hand holding my hand. It’s not a hand you can see. But on the road to the promised land, this hand will shepherd me…” It’s a beautiful image for a powerful belief. This book and song make for a great boost to the spirits any time of year, but on a day when the idea of giving thanks looms so large in the thoughts of so many, I can think of few better books with which to celebrate than Grateful.