Synthia Saint James

This book explained the main components of Kwanzaa in a story-like manner. I liked this book for two reasons. First, the writing style was engaging. For example, the book italicized difficult words and provided how to pronounce them in parentheses. The book read, "Being creative- we call it Kuumba (koo-OOM-bah)." This gives the reader the opportunity to enhance their vocabulary and practice saying the words out loud. Second, the book was written in first person. For example, "We help in our homes, we join with our neighbors, to keep everything beautiful, to keep our lives good." Rather than just stating the facts about Kwanzaa, it feels as though someone is telling you about his or her culture. The big idea of this book was to explain the seven principles of Kwanzaa.… (more)

I liked this book for a few reasons. For one, I liked that there was a passage before the story began about the history of Kwanzaa. I also like that some words had phonetic spelling in parentheses. I think this is important for students when reading because these words may not be familiar for them and the phonetic spelling is helpful for them when pronouncing these words. I enjoyed the illustrations in this book as well. I think the colors are vibrant and reflect the different colors of the candles on the candleholder described in the story. Finally, I liked the language of the story. Each page described which each candle represented. I think the author was very descriptive and clear, which would enable younger students to learn about the traditions of Kwanzaa. The message of The Gifts of Kwanzaa is that it is important for people to learn about their past in order to understand who they are today. The story ends with a child describing the “gifts from Africa like drums, dolls, and flutes, and wonderful books that tell about our past.” This statement describes that in order to appreciate tradition, it is important to know why that tradition began.… (more)