This week’s story, Giving Thanks, written by Jonathan London and paintings by Gregory Manchess,follows a father and son through a day outdoors and focuses on the father’s practice of giving thanks. The explicit theme of the story is not taking the natural world for granted, to appreciate creatures great and small, and to be open to the gifts that each day can bring. The paintings are lush and detailed, recreating that rich tapestry of colors, shapes, movement and surprises that emerge when you spend time outside, and the words do have the “lyrical cadence of a prayer.” I admit to being a little uncomfortable with the line “like his Indian friends–singers and storytellers–Dad believes that the things of nature are a gift.” As a white, outdoor educator who takes very seriously the representation of Native Americans in the schools, and how young children from different cultural backgrounds come to form their perceptions and ideas about Native American people, I am leery about how young children “encounter” indigenous people in literature, tv, movies, the internet and culture. So let’s take the author’s word for it that the father has some friends who are Native American and, commit to a rich, ongoing,historically and culturally accurate, developmentally appropriate inquiry into and engagement Native American history and culture.