Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

By Robert M. Grippo
& Christopher Hoskins

We're less than a week away from Thanksgiving! Family and food are very much a tradition for this holiday, and so is the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. For six decades many folks, especially children, have started their Thanksgiving Day off by watching this amazing parade on television. But the parade actually started much earlier in 1924, with real animals, instead of balloon animals. And what was the first balloon to appear in a Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade? Felix the Cat!

You can read even more fascinating facts, peruse vintage advertisements and photographs, and relive parades of the past in the entertaining photo filled book, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Robert Grippo devotes a chapter to each decade and writes knowledgeably and lovingly about all aspects of the parade. If you enjoy watching the parade, you'll certainly enjoy reading this book.

Reserve your copy of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

A Very New York Christmas watercolors by Michael Storrings, foreword by Cynthia Nixon

Each page of this book displays watercolors by Michael Storrings. These depict landmarks in and around New York City which we have heard of through the years. The text gives a brief history of places such as St. Patrick's Cathedral and Rockefeller Center, Lincoln Center and Radio City Music hall. Events that we have seen on television such as the Thanksgiving Day Parade and Time's Square on New Year's Eve are painted for our enjoyment. Storrings uses much color and many memorable signs and symbols of the Christmas season in these places so familiar to people living there and those of us who have seen Christmas movies set in the area such as Miracle on 34th Street and the Home Alone series. Below the text for the various watercolors are appropriate quotations by authors, mayors, lyricists and Kris Kringle. This is a thoroughly enjoyable visit to a place that is highly decorated and celebrated during the holidays.

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson

16-year-old Scarlett Martin and her family own, live in, and run an old hotel in New York City. Unfortunately, it's a shabby, unpopular, run down hotel that takes so much money to operate that they've had to let go of most of the full-time staff. Scarlett, her brother Spencer, and her sisters, Lola and Marlene, work along with their parents to clean the rooms, man the desk, and provide the most tip top customer service possible. When Mrs. Amberson arrives and books the Empire Suite, the most expensive suite in the hotel, for the entire summer, Scarlett's parents assign her as Mrs. Amberson's personal staff person. Scarlett was upset that all of her friends were off doing exciting things for the summer while she was stuck in the hot and humid city. But now, with Mrs. Amberson's arrival, it looks like things are going to get a lot more interesting!

Scarlett is a fascinating character. Her development over the course of the novel is very subtle and realistic. The characters of her brother and sisters are also very fleshed out - so much so that you are disappointed to leave them at the end of the novel. The repartee between Scarlett and her brother Spencer is witty, quirky and fun, expressing the true bond some sibilings have. Over all, this book is several steps above the usual chicklit fare, and I can't wait to read more of Maureen Johnson's novels.