A wonderfully woven story about the traditions of the Cuban holiday, La Noche Buena, as told through a child’s eyes.

A girl enjoys Christmas in Cuba with family members but misses the colder holidays she's known in the past.

Nina and her family travel from New England to Miami to celebrate Christmas with her grandmother. Nina is not happy about the trip, but finds herself enjoying her Cuban grandmother's unique traditions. I liked this book for two reasons. First, the text is well organized; the first line of the text on a page is bold when a new event occurs. For instance, when Nina wakes up in the morning the text in bold reads, "The next morning, she wakes me and brings me into the kitchen." Second, the textual features help enhance the reader's comprehension. For instance, there is a glossary of Spanish words and phrases in the back of the book that correlates with italicized words throughout the book. The overall message is not to make assumptions about something before you actually experience it. ( )

Nina is a young girl who is sent to her Grandmother’s house, on her father’s side, in Florida and is not happy about it because she misses her own family during the Christmas season. Once Nina arrives and spends the day with the other side of her family she realizes how important and fun her family is. She has so much fun hopping from house to house, celebrating with all of her relatives she is taken back. At the end of the book Nina learns that if you let people in they will surprise you. She is taken in by the culture her family has and next year wants to take her mother’s side of the family there to celebrate. ( )

I liked the book "La Noche Buena: A Christmas Story" by Antonio Scare. The book is a story about another way to celebrate Christmas and I like that this book pushes readers to think about another way to celebrate Christmas and the illustrations. In the book, Nina, the main character, is unhappy because she has to spend Christmas in Florida, way from her North-cousins and snow that she associates with Christmas. Her families preparations for Christmas teach the reader about Cuban Christmas and the traditions that are important to Cubans when they celebrate Christmas. Nina ends up having a great time and learning a lot more about her culture. I also enjoy the illustrations. Their colors add to the festivity of the book and are important in telling the story. The big idea in this book is that there are other ways to celebrate holidays, other than what you grew up with.