Seven Spools of Thread- Multicultural

Seven Spools of Thread: A Kwanzaa Story
by Angela Shelf Medearis

This story is about a family that has hardships. The mother dies and leaves her sons to be cared for by thier father alone. The sons are very handsome. The father begins having trouble with his sons. The argue all the time and make living with them unbearable. When the father passes away, the sons go into town to talk with the village chief. He tells them that they have seven spools of thread to use to make gold by the end of the day. They have to learn to work together without arguing, but if they cannot accomplish doing so, they will lose all of thier inhertiance. If they cannot make gold together all of their inhertiance will be given to the poorest villagers. The sons make fabric out of the thread and go into the village and sell it. While selling the fabric, the man responsibile for making the chief's clothing sees the fabric and buys with gold all of the remaining cloth the sons have made. The sons rush to the chief and barely make it before sunset. The chief gives them thier inhertiance, but the sons realize that there all still poor villagers and decide to teach them how to make the fabric so they can make money.

This act of kindness explains how and where Kwanzaa was created. I thought this book was very interesting. It also contains a section that explains how Kwanzaa is the only holiday that doesn't have religious affiliations. I think reading this story to my class would be a great way to ensure my classroom is multicultural and diverse.