Kitchen Dance by Maurie J Manning

By looking at the cover of this book you would think it was about an African American family, but once you read the book you realize it is a Latino or Spanish inspired story. This is a fun quick read about two children who are awoken by the sounds coming from the kitchen to find their parents dancing and singing while cleaning up. The children soon join the parents and share a fun family dance before heading back to bed. The author uses great alliteration and incorporated Spanish into the story. I loved the illustrations! They were drawn beautifully and really captured the feelings for each page with the use of colors. I think this a great story to read to children or for them to read to you because it shows a different kind of culture and positive home life of Latinos, which is refreshing rather than just focusing on white middle-class Americans as most picture books do. I also found it interesting in how the characters looked, they appeared to be African American, it just showed how the Latino community doesn't always fit into the stereotypical appearance. I think this is a great story to read to your children or student and could lead into reflection on positive family moments.