Molly’s Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen

This realistic/historical fiction book reveals issues regarding family and cultural diversity in school. When Molly’s family moves from Goraduk to rural America, Molly is forced to start a new school. One day, Molly’s teacher asks her to read a story to the class. But, when Molly has difficulty pronouncing and understanding the word “Thanksgiving,” she is laughed at by the other students. After explaining the term to Molly and the rest of the class, the teacher assigns them the task of building Pilgrim dolls for homework. Molly asks for help from her mother, who makes a Pilgrim doll that looked like her. The next day, Molly shares her Pilgrim doll with the class. She is again laughed at by her classmates, but her teacher intervenes this time to explain that Molly’s doll represents a modern day Pilgrim. Although this book is relatively short, I believe it brings up several important issues that people face regarding diversity. For example, the story points out the difficulty of learning and speaking the English language. In addition, as a future educator, I found this book to be enlightening on how I can introduce Thanksgiving and still acknowledge different cultures in my classroom.