{"id":320,"date":"2022-02-27T15:07:32","date_gmt":"2022-02-27T15:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/?p=320"},"modified":"2025-02-03T15:12:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T15:12:52","slug":"jaheems-first-kwanzaa-by-zephaniah-martin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/2022\/02\/27\/jaheems-first-kwanzaa-by-zephaniah-martin\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaheem’s first Kwanzaa: By Zephaniah Martin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In my previous review of Crown Shepherd\u2019s book Black Boy Black Boy,<\/em> the issue was raised about how African American boys fell behind in their reading skills. When asked the reason they didn\u2019t like reading in school, the reply was simple: there were no characters or images who looked like them in books. Today, I have the honor and privilege of reviewing a book that was written by 10-year-old African American male Zephaniah Martin: Jaheem\u2019s First Kwanzaa<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main character, Jaheem, is a boy who at first doesn\u2019t want to celebrate Kwanzaa, given all the other holidays throughout the year and his desire to play the video games he received for Christmas. With patience and understanding, his parents explain to him the importance of Kwanzaa and its connection to his African ancestors and history, including his late beloved grandfather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beautifully illustrated by Bilal Karaca, Jaheem\u2019s First Kwanzaa<\/em> brings relevance to Kwanzaa from a child\u2019s point of view, and connecting this special holiday to someone he loved. For his literary achievements, Zephaniah Martin was the 2021 winner of the Youth Writing Competition sponsored by Planting People Growing Justice Leadership Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is something special when an author reads his\/her\/their work. On his YouTube video, Jaheem\u2019s First Kwanzaa,<\/em> Zephaniah reads his book and shares the illustrations, and it was beautiful to behold. In these days and times, it is even more imperative to encourage these gifts in our children, so like and subscribe to his video, and let\u2019s support him as an author. Perhaps one day, he\u2019ll sign my copy of his book\u2014or yours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Representation matters, no matter how old or how young. If we don\u2019t share our stories, who will?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my previous review of Crown Shepherd\u2019s book Black Boy Black Boy, the issue was raised about how African American boys fell behind in their reading skills. When asked the reason they didn\u2019t like reading in school, the reply was simple: there were no characters or images who looked like them in books. Today, I have the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[139,138,140],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-african-american-boys","tag-black-boy","tag-youth-writing-competition","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Jaheems-first-Kwanzaa.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions\/325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}