
Tis’ the season for gratitude and thanks.
At Gymboree Play & Music we believe in teaching kids to see the world from a point of appreciation because we know that even in tough times, learning to look for the silver lining is a skill set that should be learned from an early age.
This month we curated our book recommendations around the concepts of gratitude and thanks to help you and your child incorporate these values into your daily lives.
See our recommendations below.
Recommendations for Children

I Love to Gobble You Up!
Take a moment to show your baby how grateful you are to have them in your life with this delightful book! Your little turkey will love the sturdy cardboard pages and soft felt feathers, and of course being “gobbled up” by your Thanksgiving cuddles!

1 2 3s of Thankfulness
By Patricia Hegarty & Summer Macon
From the same author as “ABCs of Kindness,” practice counting with your toddler as you teach them about the value of giving thanks and sharing gratitude. Together, we learn that “one little thank you can go a long, long way.”

Thank You, Mr. Panda!
By Steve Antony
Mr. Panda is so generous he is giving away gifts to all his animal friends. But his friends aren’t being particularly grateful. This heartwarming story helps teach little ones the importance of saying “thank you” and recognize it’s the thought behind the gift that counts the most. Toddlers will love Mr. Panda’s silly gifts and repeating the tag line, “It’s the thought that counts!”

Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks
By Margaret Sutherland & Sonja Lamut
What is Thanksgiving for? It’s a time for food and family, and also a time for giving thanks! There is so much to be thankful for, and this charming book will give your toddler or preschooler some ideas of what they can be thankful for too!

We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga
By Traci Sorell and Frané Lessac
“Otsaliheliga” is a Cherokee word used to express gratitude. Engage your preschooler in learning some Cherokee vocabulary as you read about the Cherokee traditions and celebrations that occur over the year. The book includes a glossary and the complete Cherokee syllabary to help you learn and pronounce the Cherokee words. See if you preschooler can repeat the words back to you as you learn together!

Zen Pig: The Art of Gratitude
By Mark Brown & Amy Lynn Larwig
Zen Pig teaches his friends about gratitude, compassion, and mindfulness in the first book of author Mark Brown’s “Zen Pig” series. It’s never too early to start learning the art of giving thanks! This book makes the concept of gratitude easier to understand for little ones.
Recommendations for Parents

The Gratitude Diaries
In In this New York Times bestseller, Janice Kaplan spends a year living gratefully and transforms her marriage, family life, work and health. Her pioneering research was praised in People and Vanity Fair and hailed on TV shows including Today, The O’Reilly Factor, and CBS’s The Talk. On New Year’s Eve, journalist and former Parade Editor-in-Chief Janice Kaplan makes a promise to be grateful and look on the bright side of whatever happens. She realizes that how she feels over the next months will have less to do with the events that occur than her own attitude and perspective. Getting advice at every turn from psychologists, academics, doctors, and philosophers, she brings readers on a smart and witty journey to discover the value of appreciating what you have.

The Little Book of Gratitude
Gratitude is the simple, scientifically proven way to increase happiness and encourage greater joy, love, peace, and optimism into our lives.
Through easy practices such as keeping a daily gratitude journal, writing letters of thanks, and meditating on the good we have received, we can improve our health and wellbeing, enhance our relationships, encourage healthy sleep, and heighten feelings of connectedness.
Easily accessible and available to everyone, the practice of gratitude will benefit every area of your life and generate a positive ripple effect.

Thanks A Thousand
by A.J. Jacobs
Author A.J. Jacobs discovers that his coffee—and every other item in our lives—would not be possible without hundreds of people we usually take for granted.
By thanking these people face to face, Jacobs finds some much-needed brightness in his life. Gratitude does not come naturally to Jacobs—his disposition is more Larry David than Tom Hanks—but he sets off on the journey on a dare from his son. And by the end, it’s clear to him that scientific research on gratitude is true. Gratitude’s benefits are legion: It improves compassion, heals your body, and helps battle depression.

Living Life As A Thank You
by Nina Lesowitz (Author), Mary Beth Sammons (Author), Lee Woodruff (Foreword)
Whatever is given — even a difficult and challenging moment — is a gift. Living as if each day is a thank-you can help transform fear into courage, anger into forgiveness, isolation into belonging, and another’s pain into healing. Saying thank-you every day inspires feelings of love, compassion, and hope. These ideas are the basis for this timely book. Authors Nina Lesowitz and Mary Beth Sammons present a simple, but comprehensive program for incorporating gratitude into one’s life, and reaping the many benefits that come from doing so.

Gratitude
by Oliver Sacks
During the last few months of his life, he wrote a set of essays in which he movingly explored his feelings about completing a life and coming to terms with his own death.
“It is the fate of every human being,” Sacks writes, “to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.”
Together, these four essays form an ode to the uniqueness of each human being and to gratitude for the gift of life.