Books published by publisher Cubbie Blue Pub

It is 1941, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt has just made Thanksgiving a national holiday in the United States. Takari’s family is coming from near and far to celebrate together. While helping her mother prepare Thanksgiving dinner, eight-year-old Takari breaks a platter that belonged to her Japanese grandmother. The platter had been an important part of her father’s family heritage, used traditionally by Takari’s grandmother to serve chestnut rice on the Japanese day of Thanksgiving. Angry, her mother shoos her away, telling her to go visit her best friend, Little Sparrow, whose family is Native American. He is making a special cornbread just like the one served at the first Thanksgiving dinner eaten by the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians at Plymouth Plantation. In the process, Takari learns about the history of the holiday and that a similar day of gratitude, when people give thanks for their blessings, exists in many countries, including in her father’s homeland, Japan. “Ms. Handler has delivered another beautifully illustrated and engaging story that should be a hit with young readers for years and years to come. Ms. Handler manages to provide a history of the origins of Thanksgiving, a description of how other cultures and nationalities also give thanks and, at the same time, promotes the importance (and possibility)of tolerance, friendship and sharing across cultural and national divides. Using kids from mainstream American, Native American and Japanese American families to tell her story, we learn that Thanksgiving is more than just another self-indulgent holiday!” James Loud. CO “Children will easily relate to this story which is educational as well as wonderfully inspirational: Educational, because many historical details of the first Thanksgiving are interwoven...and inspirational, because a little girl's adventures on Thanksgiving Day enable her to understand and feel genuine gratitude when her conflicts and experiences resolve.” Jessica Warne. CA “I really like the way the author brought in multiple cultures to help share in the true meaning of giving thanks for all we have. Randa Handler did a great job of making the storyline interesting and easy to follow. Children of all ages will find it fun and informative. I highly recommend this book. I give it my "Grandpa Seal of Approval." Larry B. Gray. FL

Derek, Chris, and Brian, three seven-year-old boys, befriend Derek’s new neighbor, Mike, who is blind. Their special friend, Cubbie Blue, a three-inch-tall being with supernatural powers, and his minuscule dog, Dot, help the boys learn about Mike’s limitations and needs. This important knowledge allows them to properly welcome Mike to the neighborhood. In turn, the boys help Cubbie escape from the evil soldiers trying to capture him, and he is saved by their bravery.