Irene Jennie and the Christmas Masquerade: The Johnkankus - Hardcover

Ages 5^-9. In the tradition of the McKissacks' Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters (1994), this glowingly illustrated book puts a gentler face on life during slavery. Irene Jennie wakes up on Christmas day missing her parents, who have been loaned by the master to work on another plantation. She prays for their early return but also finds solace in the arrival of the wild paraders known as the Johnkankus. These slaves, who don feather masks and inventive costumes, dance and play their musical instruments to the delight of the other slaves, who revel in the extravagance of the moment. Then, happily, Irene Jennie's parents return home early, so she can enjoy the rest of the day with them. An author's note explains the Christmas event, the Johnkankus and its African origins--information that only barely allows the story to stand alone. Rosales' pictures are lovely, quiet in the moments when Irene Jennie is missing her parents, yet able to capture the frenzy that arrives with the dancers, acrobats, and musicians who make up the Johnkankus. Because it's Christmas, everyone here is smiling and happy, and the darker side of slavery seems very far away. Ilene Cooper

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.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.