Kwanzaa Klaus
By: James Henry / Narrated By: John "Rusty" Proctor
Length: 2 hrs and 41 mins
FINALLY! Another Kwanzaa audiobook, and it was fun!
Baseball may have Darryl Strawberry, but Kwanzaa has Darryl Blueberry.
Darryl Blueberry is a downtrodden and kinda snarky dad who’s on the outs with his ex and his kid. Things are made even more dire when, on Christmas Eve, his night to be with his son, it comes out that he kinda sorta forgot to get the boy a Christmas gift. Monica, the ex, is livid, and his son Giani is disgusted: Dad is such a loser.
Loser, loser, lazy loser who only thinks of himself. It makes Darryl so mad. But things change when he runs into thugs mugging a Santa Claus dude. Darryl steps in, sorta saves the day, and is left holding the Santa dude’s gift bag.
Ahh, but it’s not any gift bag—it’s a magic one, and Darryl has now been recruited to do a good deed and help out, yes, it’s the Real Santa. It’s time to make amends, and Darryl chooses Santa’s other occasion for gifts and magic, Kwanzaa, to help out.
But it kinda goes to his head, he shows off, doesn’t keep the secret too well, and starts digging into that gift bag for extravagant gifts. And, as it turns out, the elves have been keeping a secret from the world: See, the elves do indeed make gifts all year, but last-minute, letter-under-the-pillow good girls and boys get gifts at the last minute. And these gifts? Well, they magically appear… and magically DISappear from store shelves—Merry Thievery—ho ho ho. So Darryl’s Give ‘Em What They Want attitude sets off alarm bells at the police station, plus Santa’s absence has the people tracking him over at NORAD in an uproar. And what’s this they keep hearing about someone calling himself Kwanzaa Klaus?!?
Soon Darryl is on the run, fleeing scene after scene with the aid of a trusty and depraved reindeer named Dumper. And soon, he’s having to make even more amends, especially to his son for not being the Kwanzaa Klaus that he was making himself out to be.
I really enjoyed the story, though I do think it’s hampered a bit by John “Rusty” Proctor’s narration. It’s not that he’s bad, nowhere near it; it’s just that he has that over-enthusiastic delivery that is common in audiobooks geared toward kids. It’s like this, see: I don’t think kids need to have their excitement spoon-fed to them in that manner. I think a straight and energetic delivery would be just fine. But maybe that’s just the crotchety impatient grownup in me, I dunno.
Still, it’s a nice story, and I like the way Darryl actually learned a few things along the way—good moral to the story and all—and I liked the way Santa was explained as all-loving and all-inclusive (Tho’ he was a tad twisted!).
Was I thrilled to find a Kwanzaa audiobook? Oh. My. God YES!!! And that I really liked it was an uber blessing! Listen to this book with your kids, especially younger kids, and I’m sure they’ll like it, and you’ll be amused if not entertained. Huzzah for Kwanzaa and Kwanzaa Klaus!
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