An Outlaw Thanksgiving

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Summary: An Outlaw Thanksgiving
Review: Fun and educational reading for the whole family. After reading the book my family would like to learn more about the famous outlaws and the old west.

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Summary: No morals and teaches socialism to children
Review: I was suckered in by the beautiful watercolors of this Victorian age and the steam engines, etc. My 3 year-old is a train addict and I thought this looked wonderful and a great way to combine Thanksgiving and trains, but didn't read the text before buying it. The moral issue is the girl knows that she is in the room with a wanted criminal and she decides not to turn him in. Later, she again decides not to tell her mother because she is afraid her mother will get scared. The third opportunity is when they meet up with their father and she again decides not to tell that she knows where the criminal is. The reason is that she likes the criminal "as a person" and thinks he is nice. The train robber told her that he robs from the rich and gives to the poor and therefore he is doing good and is a nice person, and the girl believes this, also mentioned by the robber is that the real robbers are the capitalist railroad owners. The author's note at the end again references that the railroad builders/owners were terrible people who had a monopoly on the railroad system--rather than the train robbers being the criminal. WACKO value systems here--not what I want to teach my children. I think children should know right from wrong and that if one is in a situation with a known/wanted criminal, the child should have turned him in.

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Summary: Give kids a break!
Review: With picture books for children like this, it is no wonder our kids have trouble making choices and identifying real heroes! All that glitters is not gold...but you won't learn it here! May I suggest you save the money you were going to spend on this book to buy a book like Leah's Pony by Elizabeth Friedrich instead!