'Twas the Night B'fore Christmas: An African-American Version was retold and illustrated by Melodye Rosales. It was basically the same as the classic tale of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, but with a few language changes. The voice was changed to be that of a southern African-American girl, and some vocabulary was changed such as the line where she says "Like tobacco leaves whipped by a hurricane fly,". While I understood the cultural significance of the language changes, I did not feel that this would be a good book in general to have in my classroom. It had a lot of slang such as "an' " instead of "and" and "wit'" instead of "with". These are already grammatical issues that need to be corrected in students, why supply them with a book that will support their incorrect language? If this book was used in class, it should be as a cultural reference with note of the language used in it.
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