Pee Wee Scouts: Peanut-Butter Pilgrims

My seven year old daughter really enjoyed reading this book. The chapters are a bit long, but kept her reading anyway. Treating a pet turkey like a dog was very entertaining and kept her laughing. There were some very realistic parts to this book, like forgetting your lines to a holiday play and having to return a turkey to a turkey farm were all handled by the children very well and made light of what could have been a difficult situation for a child. Very well done.

The Pee Wee Scouts have several great projects planned to celebrate Thanksgiving. They are making baskets for the food drive, and they collected lots of food like canned goods, peanut butter, cereal, and pasta to go in the baskets, and then they will be delivered to poor people to make their Thanksgiving happy. But it isn't as easy as it looks. Molly's basket is too tight and skinny: it's a one-can size. Rachel's is too loose, and the cans would fall out of it. Starting over is the only option, and this time they will get them right. Then there is a trip to a turkey farm. How exciting, but the kids all feel sorry for the turkeys, and after seeing and petting the turkeys, they really will not want to eat one. They all agree that they will probably eat peanut butter for Thanksgiving dinner. Sonny has really fallen in love with a big turkey with two black tail feathers, and manages to talk his mother into buying the turkey for him to take home as a pet. At the next meeting of the Pee Wee Scouts, Sonny is leading his turkey on a red leash. He has named the big bird "Tiger." Sonny is going to build a bird house for Tiger and earn a scout badge for bird house building. Some of the other kids want to help with that project, because it will have to be a very large bird house for Tiger to fit it. Their main project is the Thanksgiving play, but Molly is very nervous about that...she just is not an actor, and she is sure that she will forget her lines, and everyone will laugh and make fun of her. Nevertheless, Molly's part is going to be the pilgrim mother. She only has one line to remember, but she's just sure that she will forget it. She's especially worried when she finds out that the mayor will be there to see her ruin the play. The late Judy Delton really knew kids, and had a real flair for writing a great story that keeps kids laughing and turning the pages. Alan Tiegreen's comical pen-and-ink drawings add visual impact to the story. PEANUT-BUTTER PILGRIMS is one of a fun-filled series about the Pee Wee Scouts that will have kids begging for more. This story will be especially good as a read-aloud family time story for younger kids, or independent reading for older children that is guaranteed to keep them entranced. Reviewed by: Grandma Bev