I am teaching about Black History to kids at a Museum, and although I am an author and an artist, I am white. My understanding of Kente cloth is limited, and yet, I plan to teach about it. I want the kids to design their own Kente patterns. Yet, I have had difficulty finding adequate material to support this task. This book is perfect. It offers some supplemental information about kente cloth–its history, the colors, and info about wearing kente cloth. The drawings of the patterns are indeed great for coloring, and along with each pattern, the author has told the reader about the meaning of each pattern. Perfect. Bravo!

“Kente is a cloth that is woven by he Asante people of Ghana in West Africa. The history of kente weaving extend back more than 400 years. Kente is woven by hand on a narrow wooden loom. The four-inch strips of fabric are then sewn together to make pieces of cloth.

“The word ‘kente’ comes from the word ‘kenten,’ which means basket. The very first kente weavers used raffia, or palm leaf fibers and wove them into a cloth that looked like a basket.

Ofori-Ansa, Kwaku. Kente Cloth Patterns to Color. Scholastic, Scholastic, 1996.