September Thanksgiving

Who ever had Thanksgiving in the month of September? The answer is the American pilgrims. It is said they got the idea for the harvest celebration from the Bible story that described an ancient Jewish harvest festival called Sukkot.

This story is woven against the setting of Sukkot. Complications arise when Allan (age ten) and his sister, Molly (almost thirteen), resist celebrating this tradition because their grandparents have moved to a retirement village in Arizona. The family decides to bring the holiday all the way across California. That means they have to load unusual things on top of their van. They are a strange sight as they drive across the majestic San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge.

Allan’s challenge expands when he is given a Sunday school assignment to perform four random acts of loving kindness in four days. He has trouble understanding that “mitzvah” is a Jewish word that refers to doing an unexpected good deed that can help enrich the lives of people.

In the long, tiring car trip, the family encounters a homeless stranger, a family who is forced to live in their car, a senior citizen whose car crashed into a storefront, and a man in Room 10B who is grouchy and does not come out of his room even for meals.

A Latino girl and a Jewish girl find out how much they share in common in spite of their differences. The children’s intergenerational and multicultural experiences set the stage for a series of “mitzvahs” that have far-reaching consequences.