Melodye Rosales

The art is absolutely gorgeous, and was by far the best part of the book for me.

Not sure how this is exactly an African American retelling but for the fact that "Leola" is black, but ah, well.

This book is a spin on the original story and is told from an African-American standpoint. Awoken from their slumber, a family hears Santa's sleigh quickly approaching. They hear the reindeer on the roof and see Santa crawl down the chimney. He leaves the family their presents and wishes the family a Merry Christmas and to "sleep tight."

I dunno. It was charming enough - but the diversion about the bears having a inn was, imo, distracting. As was calling them honeybears and giving them three different colors. And I didn't particularly like the ending - the child should have been 'scared straight' so to speak. In my opinion.

This is a great twist to a classic poem because it changes it to fit an African-American culture. This book goes through the same things as the poem did but using different language and descriptors.
Media: Acrylics
I would use this book before Christmas when I had a culturally diverse classroom.
I would also use this book along with the original poem to write a comparison chart, or essay
Genre: Poetry