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Juneteenth Jamboree

by Carole Boston Weatherford (Author) Yvonne Buchanan (Illustrator)

Juneteenth Jamboree
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Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade
cms Common Sense Media Review

A young girl, who has just moved to her parents' hometown, realizes that she has come home after the African American emancipation celebration of Juneteenth.

It's a fine day in June. Cassandra's family has just moved from the city back to her parents' hometown in Texas. Cassie likes her new house, and her new school is okay, but Texas doesn't quite feel like home yet.

What Cassie doesn't know is that her family has a surprise for her - a Texas tradition. As she helps prepare red velvet cake, fried chicken, and piles of other dishes, she wonders what makes June 19th so important. It isn't until Cassie and her family arrive downtown that she discovers what the commotion is about. And, in the process, she realizes that she and her family have indeed come home.

With text and illustrations as warm as a summer day, author Carole Boston Weatherford and artist Yvonne Buchanan bring the African American emancipation celebration of Juneteenth to life for children. Readers of all ages will delight in this declaration of freedom and homecoming.

cms Common Sense Media Review
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Publisher's Weekly

Starring a likable girl named Cassandra, Weatherford's debut introduces readers to Juneteenth, which commemorates the events of June 19, 1865. On that day Texas slaves learned about their emancipation-an astonishing two and a half years after Lincoln signed the proclamation. Cassandra, newly moved to Texas, doesn't know about the holiday-her parents and other relatives are cooking, dancing and dressing up a storm, all the while telling her to expect a surprise (the only hint is that it's a Texas tradition). She is duly astonished by the rousing Juneteenth celebration, with its shows, parade, crafts and cheerful spectators. Although wordy, the enthusiastic text allows readers to discover-and celebrate-the holiday along with Cassandra. But the larger treat is newcomer Buchanan's loose pen-and-ink and watercolor art. Festive and full of mirth, her fluid, motion-packed lines put a visible spring in her characters' steps, and her palette is as summery as lemonade and blue skies. Ages 4-8. (Oct.)

Review quotes

Weatherford does an excellent job of explaining what this holiday is, and what it means to African Americans. Buchanan's... illustrations add a joyous and celebratory touch... A wonderful way to introduce this unique holiday. — School Library Journal

Festive and full of mirth, [Buchanan's] fluid, motion-packed lines put a visible spring in her characters' steps, and her palette is as summery as lemonade and blue skies. — Publisher's Weekly

With its lively text and warm illustrations, Juneteenth Jamboree provides a useful opportunity to introduce children to a holiday they may know less about, and to talk about why it took more than two years for the Emancipation Proclamation to be enforced in Texas. — Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children

This touching story's factual information is enlivened with unforced family warmth and bustle. The festive mood carries over to the bouncy watercolor illustrations. — Parenting

Carole Boston Weatherford
Carole Boston Weatherford is an award-winning nonfiction children's book author. Her books have received numerous accolades, including a Caldecott Honor for Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom and a Coretta Scott King Award Honor for Becoming Billie Holiday, as well as the NAACP's Image Award. She is currently a professor and Director of Professional Writing at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina. You can find more about Carole at cbweatherford.com.

R. Gregory Christie is a three-time recipient of a Coretta Scott King Award Honor for illustration (Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan; Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth; The Palm of My Heart: Poetry by African American Children), a two-time winner of the New York Times' 1 Best Illustrated Children's Books of the Year (in 2 for Only Passing Through and in 22 for Stars in the Darkness), a honor winner of the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for illustration (Jazz Baby), and a recipient of the NAACP's Image Award. He operates GAS-ART GIFTS, a children's bookstore with autographed copies in Decatur, Georgia. You can find more about Greg online at gas-art.com.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781600602481
Lexile Measure
650
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Lee & Low Books
Publication date
October 19, 1995
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV030000 - Juvenile Fiction | People & Places | General
Library of Congress categories
-

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