Although 11-year-old Chris has four reasons for people to wish him a Happy Birthday/Christmas/Kwanzaa/New Year, this December is difficult because his father is unemployed. Uncle Ronald's leadership for this family's African-American Kwanzaa celebration gives Chris a focus for his ability to create handmade gifts as well as a new sense of the Kwanzaa principles. Honest characterizations, a brisk pace, short sentences and a genuine representation of peer and sibling interactions earmark an easy-to-read novel expanded with eight full-page black-and-white illustrations. A Swahili glossary and information about Kwanzaa follow the story. (Ages 5-12)

Upset because his birthday falls on Christmas and will therefore be eclipsed as usual, and worried that there is less money because his father is out of work, eleven-year-old Chris takes solace in the carvings he is preparing for Kwanzaa, the Afro-American celebration of their cultural heritage.