La Noche Before Three Kings Day - Sheila Colón-Bagley - ★★★★.½

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AUTHOR: Sheila Colón-Bagley
ILLUSTRATOR: Alejandro Mesa
GENRE: Children's Picture Book, Christmas
RATING: 4.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: An exceptional bilingual (English + Spanish) picture book honouring Dia de Los Reyes from a Puerto Rican perspective. Takes inspiration from a classic Christmas poem and gives it a Three Kings twist. Loved it! 

Story Synopsis:
The entire story comes to us through the first person perspective of a little Puerto Rican girl, whose extended family has gathered at her place on ‘la noche before Three Kings Day’. After they complete their yummy dinner and have fun singing and dancing, the kids gather to make gift boxes for Los Reyes Magos. After the guests leave, our wee narrator and her sister are too excited to sleep, but Mamá and Papá convince them to go to bed. What happens next?


“Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…”

These famous opening lines belong to the beloved poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas", popularly known as “The Night Before Christmas”, penned by American poet Clement Clarke Moore in 1823. 

Now see the same lines with a bilingual twist!

“Twas la noche before Three Kings Day, and all through the casa,
Everyone was stirring, even Chico our Chihuahua”

So cute and witty, right?! 😍😄

This picture book pays a dual homage of sorts. One is to the above-mentioned classic poem. I loved how faithfully this book transmutes the entire poem to a novel setting in terms of culture, language, and festival. Just as the original work focusses on Christmas, this picture book honours el Dia de Los Reyes Magos, popularly known to the English-speaking world as Three Kings Day or the Feast of the Epiphany, celebrated in a grand way in Latin American countries and some parts of Europe on 6th January.

The second homage is to the Latin American culture (as seen through Puerto Rican eyes). The Spanish words, the celebration, the dishes, the customs – I loved seeing this insightful OwnVoices glimpse into a different culture.

The title offers a subtle hint that this book is bilingual. The story is written in rhythmic prose, with every stanza containing a mix of English and Spanish words. I loved the medley of the two languages. As a multilingual person, I tend to mash up English and Hindi, or English and Konkani, in real life, so seeing a similar harmonious interplay happen with a different language pair was amazing.

I usually don’t prefer rhymes in kiddo books as they tend to sound forced. But this book gets the rhymes spot on! Every single couplet flows in perfect meter, making it a delight to read aloud. 

Admittedly, I stumbled upon a huge personal hurdle: I don’t understand Spanish. This didn’t take away much from my experience as the context was enough to give me a hint about the proceedings, and wherever I was clueless, I just bluffed my way ahead. But I would have enjoyed this beautiful book even more had both the languages flowed at the same fluency level in my head. The book does offer a detailed glossary at the end, where the meaning of every Spanish word is provided along with its pronunciation key. This was very helpful, especially to understand what all those yummy dishes mentioned in the story involved. (I Googled the photographs of every dish – they look so scrumptious!)

The author’s note at the end adds the perfect personal touch. She talks about the celebration of this special holiday in her family, and how it inspired her to pen this book. 

The illustrations ensure that the book dazzles a level higher. The sketches are as vibrant as the Latinx culture is, with loads of colour pops on each page. These are balanced by white space in the background and well-spaced text, with not more than a couplet per page. This expert layout ensures that each element on the page gets our equal attention. This is especially important because every page has loads of action in its graphics. So if you have a child who is keen to look at all the details in every single illustration, this picture book is going to take you a while to complete! 😄

All in all, I adored this picture book, despite my lack of fluency in Spanish. It offered me all the right festive feels perfect for the season, and taught me a lot about a beautiful celebration from another culture. 

This would make for a wonderful gifting option to Latinx families. I think it will also be great for classrooms where children have some familiarity with basic Spanish. Such a fun way of experiencing a new language as well as a different holiday through a single book! 

I have no idea of the difficulty level of the Spanish words, but based on the English content, this ought to be great for ages 4-8. 

My thanks to Hear Our Voices Book Tours and author Sheila Colón-Bagley for a complimentary copy of “La Noche Before Three Kings Day”, and for allowing me to be a part of this blog tour. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. 

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Author Sheila Colón-Bagley:

Sheila Colón-Bagley is a children's book author. Born in Puerto Rico, but raised in Philadelphia, PA, she works to bring her dual heritage to the books she writes in order to provide children of multicultural backgrounds stories about families that look and live like they do.
Sheila is a member of Las Musas and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. She holds a B.A. degree in journalism from Temple University in Philadelphia and was a public relations specialist and freelance writer before staying home after the birth of her third child and then becoming an author. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, three daughters, and a spoiled Havanese dog named Vader. 
When she’s not writing, Sheila enjoys taking Zumba classes, walking, and reading.
Her debut picture book "La Noche Before Three Kings Day" illustrated by Alejandro Mesa, is scheduled for release by HarperCollins in Fall 2023. Inspired by Clement Clarke Moore's "The Night Before Christmas", this picture book Latinx retelling captures the magic and wonder of Three Kings Day through a child's eager eyes.


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Blurb:

Inspired by Clement Clarke Moore’s "The Night Before Christmas," La Noche Before Three Kings Day is a perfect holiday tale.
It’s almost Three Kings Day, and while the grownups prepare a large meal, the kids prepare their shoe boxes for los Reyes to arrive later that night. Will they stay up late enough to wish the Kings a Feliz Día de los Reyes? Or will the magic pass them by? Sing along with a great big familia as they fill up their platos, play their favorite juegos, and wait for the three kings and regalitos to arrive.
This enchanting celebration of a beloved holiday is brought to life through lively rhyming dual-lingual text by Sheila Colón-Bagley with festive illustrations from Alejandro Mesa. 

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Check out this book:




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This has been a stop on the #LaNocheBeforeThreeKingsDay blog tour conducted by Hear Our Voices Tours. (@hearourvoicestours) Thanks for stopping by!


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