The Night Is Yours

• Title: The Night Is Yours
• Author: Abul-Razak Zachariah
• Illustrator: Keturah A. Bobo
• Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Random House
• Publication year: 2019
• Brief Summary: From Penguin Random House-“This lyrical text, narrated to a young girl named Amani by her father, follows her as she plays an evening game of hide-and-seek with friends at her apartment complex. The moon’s glow helps Amani find the last hidden child, and seems almost like a partner to her in her game, as well as a spotlight pointing out her beauty and strength. This is a gorgeous bedtime read-aloud about joy and family love and community, and most of all about feeling great in your own skin.”
• Ideas for using this book in classroom or library – I did find this activity PDF from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, but this really more for parents than for teachers. However, as I have mentioned in many of my previous posts, I like that this book is a diverse book that just shows many diverse families interacting in an everyday activity-their children playing together. I do not know whether there is any particular curriculum this could fit into so maybe this is a book better suited for a public library.
• Whatever additional notes you’d like to add about this book and why you liked or didn’t like it – Bobo’s illustrations in my opinion are not stunning. I think the real gem of this book is the words by Zachariah. I did think the choice to make this a narrated second-person point of view was interesting and could get children thinking on writing in other point of views.