Thanksgiving is the hardest holiday to explain to a toddler, because nothing about it is shiny. Tomie dePaola solves that by showing them the parts they can actually see: the cornucopia on the table, the pilgrims in the pictures, the cooking, the arriving relatives, and the moment where everyone says what they are glad about.

His illustration is the reason this one lasts. Flat, warm, unhurried color and clean shapes that a one year old can decode without help, paired with text short enough to read three times in a row while dinner finishes.

Fourteen board pages built for a table where things get spilled. Put it out with the centerpiece the first week of November and it becomes the book that means November, which is how a family tradition actually starts.