The Night Before Kwanzaa

by Natasha Wing, Kirsti Jewel, Amy Wummer (Illustrator)

Overview

Learn all about Kwanzaa in this holiday addition to the Night Before series.

It's the night before Kwanzaa, and a little boy is excited to spend it with his family. Every evening, they light a candle, learn about their history, and more! Celebrate Kwanzaa in this installment of the Night Before series, told in the style of Clement C. Moore's classic tale.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593519752
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	10/17/2023
Series:	Night Before Series
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	160,540
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.12(d)
Lexile:	AD570L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 6 Years

About the Author

Natasha Wing (www.natashawing.com) lives in Fort Collins, Colorado. Her first book in the Night Before series, The Night Before Easter, was published in 1999.

Kirsti Jewel is an educator, writer, and learner who has spent more than fifteen years working in education, integrating Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Belonging (DEIJB) work into everything she does. She is currently the Director of Diversity, Equity & Belonging at Friends Seminary– an independent school in Manhattan. She was a Kweli Fellow in 2020, and her first children’s book, What Is Junteenth?, was published in 2022 by Penguin Workshop. She currently lives in Brooklyn, and when she’s not writing, reading, or engaging in social justice work, she’s likely doing yoga or exploring New York with her friends and her Jack Russell terrier, Trinidad-Helsinki.

Amy Wummer is the illustrator of over fifty children's books. In 1998 and 2007, she received the Highlights for Children Cover of the Year award. Amy has illustrated several books in The Night Before series. She lives in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Editorial Reviews

09/01/2023

K-Gr 3—The latest installment in the "The Night Before" series, which deals with holidays and common experiences in children's lives, this time focuses on Kwanzaa. A young boy is excited because his grandmother is visiting for Kwanzaa. With her and the rest of the family, the boy takes readers through the holiday. Each page tells the meaning of a different object, food, or tradition used during the celebration. The text provides the Swahili word and pronunciation of each candle in the kinara, and then describes the meaning. The material is accurate and well-constructed, but there is nothing special or unique that creates any excitement. All the books in the series use the same style of illustrations, which is unfortunate when considering the diversity of the topics. VERDICT This book will not inspire curiosity about Kwanzaa, nor does it have characters or a story that children will connect with.—Peggy Henderson Murphy

School Library Journal