Summary
This is a beautiful book about the tradition of celebrating Juneteenth in Galveston, Texas, where the holiday started. The story follows a young black girl who is driving with her family to her first Juneteenth parade. It highlights many cultural elements specific to African Americans, and shows the celebration of Juneteenth. The book celebrates black joy and shares it with its readers. The images in the book are captivating and magical, and radiates the same joy those characters are feeling.
Theme(s):
Racism, Community, Tradition
Personal Response
This book put a big smile on my face. It shows a celebration that is pure joy for all of the participants and observers. I was only made aware of this holiday within the last 5 years. I can’t help but think how great it is for kids to have this book so they can catch a glimpse at this celebration. The illustrations in the book are done so beautifully that you feel like you are looking at read pictures, and it makes you want to jump right into the story and dance with the people on the page.
Teaching Ideas
For my students, I would have them do a creative writing activity on it. I would have them choose a scene from the book, whether that be the picnic, the marching band, or the dance etc., and write what it would be like to be there. The main objective is to help students practice inference and show how we can use the picture and context clues to get a better understanding of what is happening, and we automatically fill in those gaps in our head most of the time, and add detail in their writing.
Recommended Reading Level
Birth-PreK, Grade 01, Grade 02, Grade 03
