Irene Jennie and the Christmas Masquerade: The Johnkankus

The Johnkankus festival, according to the author's note here, was a kaleidoscope of color and song danced along the dirt roads of North Carolina (and other places in the South) as a special Christmas celebration for hundreds of slaves. Rosales ('Twas the Night Before Christmas, p. 89) brings young readers there with sharply detailed oil paintings that pulsate with jubilant energy. She saturates each canvas with a rich and earthy palette and gives life to shining, memorable faces. Smalls's lengthy text, however, possesses less flair. Unlike the heroine of Smalls's Jenny Reen and the Jack Muh Lantern (p. 85), who is also a slave, Irene Jennie sounds like Gone with the Wind's Prissy: ""Buts Godmama, I'se gots no family on Christmas Day."" Later, the author stretches the storytelling too thinly in her attempt to incorporate the fruits of her research, leaving readers with perhaps too much of a good thing. Ages 4-8. (Oct.)