It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Kwanzaa! (Jump at the Sun Holiday Classics)

From Thanksgiving to Kwanzaa with a little Christmas in between, these fun-to-read books are just in time for the holiday season! Illustrated with bright, vivid colors that capture the spirit of the season, they are sure to spread joy and cheer to family storytimes at any time of year! Jump at the Sun Holiday Classics include: - Over the River and Through the Woods - The Night Before Christmas - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Kwanzaa! - All Things Bright and Beautiful

PreSchool-Grade 2–This slender paperback is a takeoff on the popular Christmas song, but readers will have to know the tune really well, and maybe practice a few times, to make it work. The text describes the activities of a grinning African-American extended family as they celebrate Kwanzaa. It's not great literature or great artwork, but it may feel immediately familiar to youngsters raised on sugarcoated cartoons.–M. A.
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PreS-Gr. 2. Books in the new, inexpensive paperback Holiday Classics series are extremely uneven, and it's no surprise that authors aren't identified. The texts are bland and generic; the art is greeting-card style with glamorized, idyllic African American characters who bat their eyelashes and smile and smile. Unfortunately, kwanzaa lacks the rich historical detail about the ceremony that so many other Kwanzaa books provide. Yes, African American kids want to find themselves and their families in traditional stories, but holiday traditions are more than sweet messages and upbeat role models, and there are many excellent African American versions that offer fuller text and much better illustrations. Hazel Rochman
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