Claudia and the First Thanksgiving

The Baby-Sitters Club #91

by Ann M. Martin, Nola Thacker

Writing a Thanksgiving play for the third-grade class she coaches, Claudia is disappointed when some parents object to her less-than-traditional themes, and she must choose between letting the other kids down or fighting censorship.

Genres: Middle Grade, Childrens, Fiction, Young Adult, Thanksgiving, Contemporary, Friendship

128 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1995

About the author

Ann Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.

Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.

Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.

Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.

After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...

Reviews

[FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH · Rating 5 out of 5]

in this social justice rah rah rah book by ghostwriter Nola Thacker, claudia, stacey, and abby are assigned to the same short takes class (the same series depicted in Stacey and the Mystery at the Mall and Jessi's Horrible Prank) in which they will create and orchestrate a play for third-graders at stoneybrook elementary school. they write a play about the first thanksgiving in which a character from today (well, 1995, when this book was released) is sent back to the first thanksgiving and sees how different it actually was from what she’d been taught all these years. it’s mostly pretty tame, but there are a few moments that get very soapboxy (talking about how women were property of men and how today women still don’t have equal rights, etc). the parents and teachers of the 3rd graders get really mad because they think the play is unamurrican, so claudia and co have to edit the play. they do so under protest; they write a “traditional” first thanksgiving story for the 3rd graders, but they wear buttons that say CENSORED and write CENSORED on all their programs and such, and they put on their original play at their middle school. meanwhile, every single bsc member’s thanksgiving plans falls through, so they put together a huge thanksgiving potluck with all their families.

highlights:
-on a trip to the library for research stacey is supposed to be looking at books about thanksgiving but claud catches her reading a book called good money and she looks guilty when caught. don’t tell me this is unrealistic, I don’t even care -- I was laughing out loud.
-the play they write is pretty gutsy: when alice sees how different things were back then, she comments on how while there's plenty to be happy about today there's still a lot of work to be done, what with women still not receiving equal pay, etc.
-I like abby a lot. one of the parents says, "the pilgrims were heroes. they came to a savage, uncivilized country and made something of it." UGGGGHHHHHHH. abby responds, "oh yeah? tell that to the native americans! and then ask the pilgrims what they believed about jews. europe wasn't civilized, it was bigoted and prejudiced. just because you believe a bunch of lies and propaganda doesn't mean we have to!"
-counterprotesters actually come to the high school production and are booing so much that the star of the play has to stop talking and just glare. it’s pretty intense. people talk a big talk about how enlightened and liberal northeasterners are, but connecticut is definitely full of people who are democrats but still believe in traditional values and would be pissed off about a play a bunch of middle schoolers wrote about how thanksgiving isn’t perfect.
-at the uncensored play production at the middle school, claudia notices that the play isn't actually that good since it's not being performed by cute 3rd graders. this is a powerful moment -- claud understands the significance of having put on the play but still can see that it’s not objectively good.
-dawn shows up as a surprise at thanksgiving, everyone excitedly greets her and calls her by name. abby says, "you're not dawn schafer, are you?" with a straight face. guys, I love abby.

lowlights/nitpicks:
-wrong: when they talk about doing housework, mary anne references Maid Mary Anne, "referring to a bsc job involving a ton of housework for her." no, it wasn't a bsc job. mary anne got swept up (no pun intended) in helping out an elderly lady who had injured herself, but it had nothing to do with the bsc.
-one of the slogans the bsc members come up with for buttons and such is "native americans for the real thanksgiving." yeah, but none of you is actually native, so fuck you.
-are charlotte and becca really both in 3rd grade? I thought char had skipped a grade, and that made it so she was in the same grade as vanessa pike, not becca.

claudia outfits:
-"I'd put on a pair of baggy pants, not blue, not black, but yellow. With these I was wearing my red Doc Martens, laced with orange and yellow laces, and this great, funky, enormous shirt that I found in a vintage clothes shop. It has a leaf pattern on it. The leaves are in a Hawaiian print design, and the colors are fabulous. Underneath I was wearing my red and yellow tie-dyed long underwear shirt. To complete the ensemble, I had on earrings that I'd made myself, shaped like pumpkins, and a fringed yellow-and-white scarf tied around my hair...I grabbed my jacket (yellow, with big black buttons, also from the vintage clothes shop)."
-"I was wearing my rainbow-colored crinkle gauze skirt, my crocheted vest with the matching hat, and my silver earrings (designed by me, of course)."

stacey outfit:
-"She was wearing an oversized midnight blue turtleneck under a cropped black wool jacket with square gold buttons. She had on black suede ankle boots, the kind that wrinkle around your ankles. Her fitted black jeans were tucked into the tops of the boots. She had looped a light blue muffler around her neck and wore matching gloves."

jessi outfit:
-"She had on a purple leotard with her jeans, and a big fuzzy lavender cardigan sweater."

kristy lunch description:
-"I think this lunch is from the first Thanksgiving." then Abby says she thinks jello was on the Mayflower, "as glue to hold the ship together."

mary anne kid kit:
-crayons and coloring books
-a simple puzzle
-a magnetic game of checkers
-a picture book featuring big bird

snacks in claudia’s room:
-potato chips under her bed
-pretzels (n.s.)
-candy corn in a sock
-chocolate candy in pumpkin wrappers (n.s.)

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

if i'd been even 1/100th as cool as claudia in middle school, my whole life would be different. so claudia's short takes class wrote and directed a play about the first thanksgiving for third graders to star in. because nobody does righteous indignation the way teenagers do (and that's a compliment) claudia and her friends get REAL pissed when they do some research and find out what the first thanksgiving was like, and that the pilgrims they'd heard so many stories about were not actually very good people. their play starts to reflect this new understanding and when they have a dress rehearsal with the little kids, the elementary school teachers and some of the parents call their play un-american which...is just...that took me a minute. i've seen it in person a million times so i don't know why it was so jarring to read but the idea of full grown adults giving teenagers the evil eye for simply telling the truth is so bizarre. all this one little girl said was that the native americans weren't super psyched about the pilgrims. that's objectively true! what's the beef here? anyhow, they put on a censored version of the play at the elementary school and the real version at SMS, complete with playbills and set decorations that say censored all over them. all of this makes claudia realize that you can't believe everything you read or hear and now that my girl's on her critical thought journey, she can't be stopped. also there's a B plot about how everyone's thanksgiving plans got cancelled so literally all of the BSC and their families celebrate together. it's cute and fine but it's hard to focus on that when claudia's out sticking it to the establishment and showing some major character growth. 5 stars. i'd give it 10 if i could. keep on rocking in the free world, claudia kishi.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to start off by saying that I use a sliding scale for my ratings - I gave this book 5 stars even though it was far from perfect, because it greatly exceeded my expectations and was very impressive for a BSC book. Also, I realize that the BSC has tackled social justice subjects before, but this was one of the deepest attempts (since it was basically the plot of the whole book), and I was pleasantly surprised.

Now, on to the review:

If you're expecting a hokey story about pilgrims and family, this isn't it. For those who haven't read the book (spoilers ahead), Claudia and her class is given an assignment to write and direct a play to be put on by the local third graders, and they choose to write it on the first Thanksgiving. In the play, a modern girl goes back in time and compares the first Thanksgiving to our traditions today. However, the play takes it a step further, and compares cultural changes that have taken place as well, such as gender roles and racial relationships. This sparks outrage in the community, who call the play un-American (in that it points out problems that still exist in American society, and subtly suggests that hey, Native Americans kinda got a raw deal). With this turn of events, the book takes on themes of censorship and the whitewashing of history. (Of course, since this is a BSC book, the hokey family elements are there too.)

The pros:
* Claudia makes a very astute observation that while there were a couple of girls eager to try out for male parts, there were no boys willing to try out for female parts. This is very telling of the misogyny that still exists in our culture, in which it's generally more acceptable for girls to do stereotypically-male things (like play sports), but not vice-versa (like do ballet or, in the case of Logan, baby-sit). Overall, I appreciated that the book was quick to point out that sexism is still a problem, and I thought that the people's reactions to that statement (outrage and denial, and attempts to silence them) were very realistic.
* Can I just say that I was blown away by Abby? I've only read a few books with her in it, but she was kickass in this story. When she called historical Europe out as bigoted (as opposed to being the "civilized" ones) I just about choked - she doesn't mince words, does she? Also, the sign that explicitly said they were being racist and sexist, and the protest sign that said "Hatred of the truth is not a family value" - wow. This book has sass.
* The pointing out of whitewashing in general was very powerful, even though (as others have pointed it out), they could have went a lot further with that. I really liked that it made Claudia wonder what other pieces of history have been, ah, "misrepresented."
* I also really liked the theme of censorship, and how open the book was about addressing it. I don't want to say that it didn't pull any punches, because of course there was more that could have been said, but it pulled far fewer than I expected. I actually felt tense while reading it, and the themes of prejudice and censorship and how they play into American values (and the different interpretations of what that means) really resonated. There was also a genuine sense of realism to those sense, especially in the phrases used: "Unamerican," "family values," worry about "corrupting" our children (by teaching them about historical controversies), etc.


The cons:
* Can anyone say "cultural appropriation"? Yeah. That.
* The BSC actually ACKNOWLEDGED that there are large numbers of Native Americans who hate Thanksgiving and approach it as a Day of Mourning, and they have at least a basic understanding of the racist nature of the holiday, and yet they still decide to celebrate it like it's no big deal. Hmm.
* Seeing as how it's written from Claudia's point of view, it seemed a little weird that there was nothing about her relating to the Native Americans struggle since she is also a person of color. (Jessi's brief comment in the beginning of the book about there being no POC at the first Thanksgiving doesn't really count, since it just kind of sits there without context.) For instance, is Claudia not aware of the Japanese internment, and how that tends to get glazed over in history classes? Even if she hadn't learned about that specific example, surely she would have had *something* to say about the subject.
* It really was lucky that the middle school principal (unlike the elementary one) was supportive. If I'd pulled a stunt like that (writing 'censored' all over the poster for the kids' play after being forced to change it), there would have been major repercussions. It just felt like a cheap plot fix to ensure a happy ending and prove that "Don't worry there are a few bad eggs but overall Americans have moved on to become a post-racial society," when in reality, racism is institutionalized and whitewashing is still a major problem.

Overall, I do think the book was a success (with the note that, again, I'm rating it in its context as a BSC book, and with the understanding that they could have only gone so far and still gotten published). I do wish they'd focused more on the Native American aspects, since, uh, it was a story about Thanksgiving and all. They do at least debunk a few stereotypes (like about the prevalence - or lack thereof - of war bonnets, and the fact that different cultures had different traditions), but it feels like the author is scared to say too much, so most of the controversial details regarding the treatment of the Native Americans are left to sit vaguely in the background. That's understandable, but really disappointing. Still, even with all that being said, I'm glad this book was written. It was no doubt eye-opening to a great deal of people, and thought-provoking. There are young adult books that address these ideas just as well or better, but I'm glad to see the Baby-Sitters Club's contribution to the fold.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love when Abby and Dawn meet.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty progressive for a book written in 1995. A+ 🍗🦃🏈

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 reminded me of the idea that maybe we could understand each other better if only everyone read more books.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well. I definitely didn't expect to like this one nearly as much as I did. For about half the book, I expected to give it 2 stars. There are some issues of representation and tone that are rather problematic - for example, Claudia's narration mentions that "Squanto" is what the Europeans call Tisquantum, yet then the book proceeds to refer to him only as "Squanto." Also, the Europeans are pretty consistently referred to as "Pilgrims," and there is a mention at one point that moccasins are "what the Native Americans WORE in cold weather," as if they exist only in the past. (There is a long discourse in scholarship on how this type of portrayal renders unreal the very real, current issues, problems, and discrimination that various Indigenous groups continue to be subjected to, and relegates the actual people, communities, cultures, and practices to the realm of folklore.) And overall, the book is rather rosy about the entire concept of settler colonialism and genocide, as well as the broken treaties, which continue to be violated still. However, it reads to me like a kids' book that is pushing to be as radical as it can get away with, while having to make compromises for publishers etc.
And this book IS really surprisingly radical. Like, excellently radical. Claudia's class originally attempts to put on a play about "the real Thanksgiving," intended as a corrective to the "traditional" white supremacist self-congratulatory narrative. But then the entire turn toward censorship and resistance, when some parents get angry, was just totally unexpected and great. Claudia and her class's choice to perform a censored version of the play, while publicizing the fact that they are being actively censored, is fantastic. It is great protest. They print bare-bones versions of posters and programs, and then print "CENSORED" in red across all of them; they and their families and supporters all wear buttons with slogans supporting freedom of speech and decrying censorship; and they still perform the original, critical version of the play at the middle school the night after performing the censored version at the elementary school. Girls are cast as men in the play, along with the reiteration that two-thirds of the women on the Mayflower died before the events in the play. Abby angrily fires at one of the objecting parents, "...ask the Pilgrims what they believed about Jews. Europe wasn't civilized, it was bigoted and prejudiced. Just because you believe a bunch of lies and propaganda doesn't mean we have to!" There is also a specific mention that the Ramseys (one of Stoneybrook's only Black families), the Pikes (sometimes interpreted as coded Irish-Catholic, and always shown as very socially liberal), and the DeWitts (a blended family with two divorced parents and their respective children) are NOT among those objecting to the content of the "true Thanksgiving" play - leaving readers to infer something about the parents who ARE. Those parents are spearheaded by someone called "Mrs Albion" - pretty on the nose, but funny. (She also thinks scenery involving a painted tree in which the leaves are kids' handprints is somehow sinister - is this a subtle suggestion that she is worried about "Illuminati symbols"?) The play also mentions that many Indigenous groups observe a Day of Mourning, rather than Thanksgiving. When some of the third-graders in the play want their costumes to include bare feet and giant feathered war bonnets, it is made very clear that neither of those is accurate, and that the stereotypical headdresses with lots of feathers weren't worn by anyone east of the Mississippi. There are also really fantastic references to other protest movements and repertoires. In addition to the explicit quotes on the buttons they wear ("the price of freedom of speech is eternal vigilance;" "narrow-minded, racist, sexist, CENSORED" - be still my heart!; "whose play is this anyway?"), there are subtler references as well - Claudia's narration echoes John Paul Jones's anti-surrender rallying cry when she says, "We had only just begun to fight!" Abby seems like she's being set up as the voice for bringing real-life feminist theory into the series, as she is specifically mentioned as the creator of a button that references Cynthia Enloe - "Thanksgiving then, Thanksgiving now - where are the women?" I also think that Abby's personality as someone who questions the status quo and agitates strongly for social justice, in combination with the fact that she is Jewish, might be meant to invoke the rich history of Jewish labor organizing and mass politics in both Europe and the US. Ms Garcia, the middle school teacher and supervisor of the play project, gives each of her students a red rose onstage, a commonly-used icon of socialist and labor activism. Claudia also mentions being surrounded during the censored play by the Thomas-Brewer and Pike families (the Pikes were "in force"), all wearing buttons, creating a sense of a mass-movement and solidarity. That is followed by a Thanksgiving in which all the babysitters' families' individual plans fall through, and so they organize a massive celebration with all their families - a community they create and strengthen through mutual assistance and labor-sharing. The babysitters recognize that renting a venue or purchasing food would be an unreasonable economic burden, so the wealthiest household, the Thomas-Brewers, host everyone in their home, while all the families pitch in to cook food. Not only the babysitters, but also their older siblings, pitch in to provide FREE CHILDCARE so that the adults are free to work to provide for the entire group. Ann M Martin and Nola Thacker (the ghostwriter) do a great job modeling some of the important ideas advocated by feminist labor activists and theorists. I also just really like it when the families are more involved, and when characters spend time together who don't normally interact much with each other in the books (like Sam Thomas and Vanessa Pike making up poems together while prepping for the party, or Abby and Anna Stevenson, Janine Kishi, and Claire Pike all setting the tables together).
After writing this whole chaotic review, I realize there is actually SO MUCH going on in this book. It's been awhile since I've read a BSC book that I've thought was this good.

[Devon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Stacey book followed by a Claudia book? I'm so spoiled. Weirdness at the beginning because Stacey's book dealt with Halloween, then Claudia's rewrites history (ah, the fun of repeating the same Halloween 2000 times in the course of all of these books), but otherwise great.

Normally I'm not a huge fan of the soapbox books, but this one is done well, with the middle school students actually figuring out a workable solution without breaking the hearts of several third grade classes. And, while I'm used to things working out perfectly for the BSC, it is a nice dose of realism (that I sort of hate, but I love that it's realistic) that not everyone changes their ways and accepts that the middle schoolers are right about Thanksgiving.

The scene at the end with 37 people getting together for Thanksgiving is just icing on the cake. (Also, sidenote, but I love that it's Claudia's favorite holiday, and not Halloween.)

[Tonia Christle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a stellar book and it really stands the test of time!

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was actually pretty great. I was not expecting that. Written by sentient dog Nola Thacker; is she the best Babysitter's Club writer? This would change everything if I was planning on reading these things regularly. Claudia, Stacy, and Abby are in a short class module and the eighth graders must write and direct a short play for the third graders. The kids choose Thanksgiving and a premise where a modern girl goes to bed and wakes up at the first Thanksgiving, where pilgrim and Native kids talk to her about what is the same and what is different between then and now. What is the same but different between 1995 and 2022 is that people are still wringing their hands over what then would have been called "political correctness" and might now be called "wokism" (if we're not over calling things that by now), so parents and teachers protest the play and the eighth graders have to rewrite the play to reflect traditional Thanksgiving values. The third graders stage the censored play (the eighth graders write "censored" on all the posters) and the eighth graders perform the original play to a packed house. The best part is when Claudia is sitting watching the play and she realizes that the play a committee of eighth graders wrote over one week isn't very good. But some people learned some facts about Thanksgiving and that's all that matters. The side plot is that everyone in the BSC has their Thanksgiving plans cancelled so they convince their families to have a giant Thanksgiving meal at the Watson-Brewers. I'd never read a book with in it Abby before. She's a good egg. She didn't talk about the early Jewish settlement of Rhode Island but she almost did. Claudia has some outfits and makes some arts, because that's what Claudia does, but an excellent level of plot-driven writing showing Claudia and her enthusiasm for out-of-the-box doings here.

[Pastel Paperback · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whoa, this BSC is wildly relevant to today, even though written in 1995.

Claudia's SMS class is tasked with writing a play for the Stonybrook Elementary third graders. They decide on the seasonal Thanksgiving theme, but go hard on research and realize that history smoothed over a lot of the facts. They choose to write a play that shows the harsh realities of the first Thanksgiving—including showcasing the way that Native Americans and women, in particular, were treated—but then comes the backlash.

Certain parents and teachers at the school are up in arms about the play. They demand the play be rewritten. They deny historical context and facts. The elementary school kids are confused. And in the end, the SMS students have to rewrite the play to sanitize the truth, but oooooh do they put up a fight, writing CENSORED across all the playbills and posters as a form of protest. It gets really heated!

Woke af BSC book, dang Nola Thacker.

[Andrew Dittmar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cladia and the First Thanksgiving by Ann M. Martin


This might actually be my favorite of the series.

All the babysitters are there. There's a storyline about censorship. There's a Thanksgiving play that would probably result in SMS being targeted by TPUSA today. There's a delightful-sounding Thanksgiving dinner with 37 attendees.

Very enjoyable.

I choose to find it whimsical that I'm a childless thirtysomething male reading these for fun.


Reading history:
Normally I keep this in my private notes section, but I'm moving it. Yay!

Reading history was not added on Goodreads, but was instead kept on a small piece of paper with the book.


Started March 21st, 2026.
Finished March 23rd, 2026.


March 21st, 2026: read chapters 1-2 via Libby ebook.
March 22nd, 2026: read chapters 3-9 via Libby ebook.
March 23rd, 2026: read chapters 10-15 via Libby ebook.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

The BSC help the third graders put on a play about Thanksgiving. This is a pretext, so they can complain about women's rights and how terrible the pilgrims were. When some parents take offense, the girls declare that they are bigots who hate free speech. They compromise by writing CENSORED all over the playbills and posters. The parents get into a furious yelling match, but luckily, it doesn't turn into a violent riot like in "Dawn and the School Spirit War".

Much like "Dawn Saves the Planet", this book was a heavy-handed, 100-page lecture which was so obnoxious, I disliked it, even though I agree with the points that are being made.

In the subplot, the girls plan a big, traditional Thanksgiving dinner, which makes no sense, after they spend the majority of the book saying Thanksgiving is national disgrace with racist origins. Were they not paying attention to their own protest?

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a real appreciation for this book, even as a kid. I love that it brought up the issue of how the first Thanksgiving really wasn't this perfect, wonderful event and while we do have a good holiday that stemmed from it, we need to learn about the event as it really was. I also REALLY dug how it dealt with the issue of censorship, and the way the kids (and teacher) handled it. Claudia was the perfect choice for this story, because she isn't super preachy but she also knows how to stick to her guns. That made it great!

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Thanksgiving BSC book? Heck yeah. I didn’t know there were any holiday themed books in this series. Like Claudia, I love Thanksgiving.
In this one the characters put on a school play with some kids at the elementary school to show how the first Thanksgiving really happened. Of course a bunch of Karens and whatever the male version of Karen is get all bent out of shape and try to shut the play down. But the girls hold their ground and tell the story like it is. Good for them.
Now I’m hungry for turkey and mashed potatoes.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

As great as the main story is (Claudia and friends write a play about the first Thanksgiving, adults hate that they don't portray the Pilgrims as heroes) I gotta say, the subplot about all the BSC and their families (36 people in total!) having turkey dinner together is kind of my favourite. Sam and Charlie hanging out with the BSC and all the kids at the Pikes (and making the triplets clean their room!) Just the warm fuzzies from everyone spending time together! TURKEY!!!

[Maeve · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Claudia's short takes class, she and her friends are required to write a play for the 3rd graders to perform. They decide to depict the first Thanksgiving accurately, which upsets the 3rd grade teachers and parents. Claudia and her classmates decide to edit the play, but they perform the original with a cast of 8th graders. While all of this is happening, Kristy is determined to plan a potluck Thanksgiving for all of the BSC members since their travel plans all fell through.

[Lianna Kendig · Rating 4 out of 5]

(LL)
Honestly, this book surprised me. I thought it would be terribly outdated in what the first Thanksgiving really was, but it was pretty spot on. The lessons on censorship and standing up for what you think is right was awesome. It was pretty realistic, which hasn’t happened in the past few dozen books, so it was a nice surprise.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second BSC book in a row I've read that wasn't as heavy on the expected plot as I thought. My main memory of this book is of Dawn walking into the Thanksgiving celebration and Claudia doing a double take. The plot had some insights into the real first Thanksgiving and freedom of speech, but I kind of wish the protesters had gotten theirs.

[Cassandra Doon · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was 10 I joined a readers club/group where we got a new book every week. I chose The babysitters club.
The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day.
Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well.

[Ciara · Rating 3 out of 5]

the students at stoneybrook middle school are taking a new short takes class, & claudia is assigned to a class about drama for children. stacey & abby are also in her class. their assignment is to write, produce, & direct a play that will be performed by the third graders at stoneybrook elementary. after a few random suggestions (abby suggests a play about soccer), they settle on a play about the very first thanksgiving. they intend to have a modern girl fall asleep & go back in time to the first thanksgiving, to explore the differences between what life was like for the pilgrims versus what life is like for modern americans.

just as an aside, halloween happens in this book & all the pike kids except for mallory dress up as groucho marx. but halloween also happened in the last chronological book (stacey & the haunted masquerade), in which all the children were obsessed with the movie "ghostbusters" & dressed up as ghostbusters for halloween. seriously? they could keep the continuity straight for even two successive books? okay, then.

the first thing the kids have to do is go to the library & research the first thanksgiving. they discover that the traditional thanksgiving menu that folks enjoy now doesn't bear much resemblance to what the pilgrims & indians ate back in the 1600s. & one of the students on the short takes class points out that there were no black people at the first thanksgiving. abby points out that there were no jewish people either, & that women were treated really differently. she's also quick to point out that women still don't enjoy total equality in modern society today. the short takes students decide to write a play that doesn't just point out menu differences & the fact that the pilgrims lived a tedious life of constant toil, but that also highlights the inequalities faced by women & people of color throughout the ages.

the hold auditions & give the role of the modern girl to betsy sobak. jake kuhn is selected to play squanto. one of the arnold twins did quite well & is chosen to play miles standish, much to the outrage of buddy barrett, who doesn't think a girl should play a boy character. claudia notes that girls tried out for several of the male roles, but no boys tried out for any of the female roles. i noted that the children of stoneybrook continue their fucked up reign of terror in terms of romanticizing & disrespecting american indian culture. all the kids chosen to portray indians want to wear huge war bonnets & go barefoot. the short takes students have done their historical research & point out that none of the tribes west of the mississippi wore war bonnets, & that even an indian would be wearing moccasins or something in november.

they start rehearsing their play. claudia, of course, is part of the scenery-painting crew. one day, an angry parent shows up at rehearsal & calls the play unamerican. the next day, several more angry parents are there, protecting some of the more political lines in the play. then a third grade teacher appears, screaming her head off about how the play is treasonous. claudia was part of the research team & she knows that everything in the play is historically accurate & that the sanitized picture of a merry thanksgiving with pilgrims & indians breaking bread together & not killing one another is a fiction designed to make european americans feel okay about themselves. she doesn't see how it's unamerican to tell the truth...& plus, the third graders are having a great time putting the play together.

eventually, there is a whole organized protest movement directed at the play. claudia notes that none of the regular BSC clients are involved, but a lot of other parents & some teachers are. the short takes class meets to decide how to address the protests. they contemplate shutting the play down altogether, but they don't want to disappoint the kids that have worked so hard. they think about staging their play anyway, but they're worried about how the kids will respond to being picketed. finally, they decide to write a new, sanitized, happy shiny thanksgiving play for the third graders, & to stage the original version at the middle school, using older actors. so they do. the third graders' play goes off with a hitch, aside from parents that are angry that the short takes students wrote "censored" in huge red letters across all the posters & programs. the picket line reconvenes to protest the middle school play, & there are so many angry protesters inside, booking the political lines, that the principal has to come on stage & threaten to throw out anyone who can't keep quiet during the performance.

as claudia watches the play, she realizes that although this political play is historically accurate & truthful, it's not very good. it seems a bit strident when the message isn't being softened by cute little third graders delivering the lines. she wonders if there is some middle ground between presenting the truth & providing good entertainment. she she's glad the short takes class went on with the show anyway & didn't bow to the protesters.

that's it. pretty anti-climactic.

[Jennifer Baratta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review on www.Audible.com please listen to this book

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one! I think it was a bit heavy, maybe more than some of the others, and trying a little too hard on the theme. But I can never go wrong with a Baby-Sitters Club book!

[Christina]

Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blo...

[Sonbal]

it was really nice

[Dakota Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really liked it, I have been reading this series for years and I still can’t get enough of the characters and the town. It deals with censorship…I love holiday books!! Very good

[Dr. Aditi Kapoor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Fun yet hardhiting. They cover an important topic in this.

[Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was okay. Not the best or the worst. Thanksgiving is coming up and once again SMS students are taking a shirt takes class, this one about drama. Claudia Abby and Stacey are assigned to put on a play with third graders at SES. They choose the first Thanksgiving. A girl called Alice wakes up from her modern home in the middle of the first Thanksgiving. There's the usual bickering as the kids rail against how unfair it is that women can't vote, and that the natives had their land stolen from them. The parents protest. Despite that this was written in the 90's the rhetoric is pretty much the same you'd find on any cable news show or social media site today. Half the people mad about history and wanting to point out the flaws of society and the other half calling in un-American to point out that America was (is) a racist misogynistic society especially back then but of course there was no America back then it wouldn't happen til about 100 years later so technically yeah the play was un-American. It got a bit preachy at times but it was okay. The b plot sort of reminded me A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving where all the plans the girls had for Thanksgiving fell apart and they end up holding a huge potluck dinner with all their families. This made the book a bit better. Still not bad and as I said I really enjoyed the big Thanksgiving dinner plot at least.

[Kortney Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a good book! With my re-read of the BSC books, I started going a bit out of order but decided to read this book with Thanksgiving coming up. This book was such a great and relevant read. The girls decide to work on a school project that requires them to tell the story of the First Thanksgiving. The girls decide to write things from an equitable background. The teacher assigning the project agrees that they can present a play with this new spin on the first thanksgiving. Well, all hell breaks loose when the parents of Stoneybrook attempt to shut it down, claiming it does not paint pilgrims in a great light. If you’ve read any BSC books, you know how this is going to end, but the writing and content is amazing. This book oddly mirrors some of the equity issues we face currently in our nation. However, there is some language in there that would be “cancelled” now days. It’s definitely worth the read. I don’t think I’ve given a BSC book 5 stars in a good long time. Take the couple of hours and read this book. I’ve also encouraged my 13 year old who is not a fan of the books to read this one because the hilarity in some of the terms is worth it.

[Lillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

After being a BSC nerd for so many years, it's kind of weird to say I haven't even read all the books yet. Nonetheless, I'm getting to it and Claudia and the First Thanksgiving was one of those books I haven't read. I have to say: I enjoyed it! What I really liked about this particular book was that when Claudia did the introductions she didn't focus on their ethnic differences! It was quite an awesome thing. I think we all know why. (Jesse's black!) Anyway. GOOD BOOK. I was surprised I liked it so much.