Product Description
A cumulative all-holiday carol packed to the brim with family, food, love, and Black joy, especially perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas, graduations, and all family celebrations.
Every holiday, aunties, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and neighbors come over to eat, sing, and celebrate life. But all our main character can think about is the sweet potato pie Granny makes just for her. As tables fill with baked macaroni and cheese, chitlins, and other sides a-steaming, she and Granny move the pie to keep it intact. The task becomes tricker as the room grows with dancing and card games and pie cravings. Just when all seems lost and there’s no more pie, Granny pulls out a sweet surprise.
Written to the tune of “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” Twelve Dinging Doorbells is exuberant. Author Tameka Fryer Brown’s cumulative rhyme is impossible to resist, and the humorous details in Ebony Glenn’s cut-paper collage will welcome readers to this party again and again.
From School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 2-On the day of a family's holiday reunion, the dinging doorbell heralds each new guest. A sweet potato pie, a pair of selfie queens, and a trio of posh siblings are just the beginning of the many attendees. With every ding, the gathering grows increasingly crowded and noisy as players yell, and toddlers squeal. Though having so many people in one place can feel overwhelming, family's still family and everyone's having fun. It also helps when there's a slice of sweet potato pie left. This picture book, with its lyrics a take on the familiar tune "The Twelve Days of Christmas," is a celebration of African American families and culture. Brown-skinned people in colorful attire grace each spread. The illustrator combined collage art with digital renderings to produce dynamic images of the gathering. VERDICT This vibrant celebration of African American families, fun, and culture will be a great addition to library collections.-Myiesha Speightα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review
Praise for Twelve Dinging Doorbells:
★ "This vibrant celebration of African American families, fun, and culture will be a great addition to library collections."
—School Library Journal, starred review
★ "A new classic."
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
★ "Revamping 'The 12 Days of Christmas' to sweetly bustling effect, Fryer Brown pens a lively refrain…It’s a lovingly chaotic portrayal with a pleasingly ample feel."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
About the Author
Tameka Fryer Brown wrote Around Our Way on Neighbor’s Day, My Cold Plum Lemon Pie Bluesy Mood, and Brown Baby Lullaby. She is also a contributor to The Brown Bookshelf, an award-winning website dedicated to highlighting Black children’s authors and illustrators. She is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Ebony Glenn is an Atlanta-based illustrator. She has a passion for the arts, great storytelling, making new things, and advocating for more diverse narratives in children’s books. Ebony is the proud recipient of the 2018 Wonders of Childhood Focus Fellowship given by AIR Serenbe, a nonprofit artist residency program of the Serenbe Institute. Visit ebonyglenn.com and follow her on Instagram @artsyebby.
