There are books that entertain, and then there are books that preserve, A Night for the Rice Carriers, written by Carmen Rubin and illustrated by Matt Williams is a book that does both.
At the center of the book is Mae, a young girl helping her grandmother, Coco, prepare for a full-moon celebration with neighbors and friends. But this is no ordinary gathering. This is the night Mae will share her ancestors’ story with everyone present the story of Yaya and Paanza, two real West African women who carried grains of rice hidden in their braids as they escaped enslavement and forged new lives.
It’s a small, quiet detail with enormous weight. These women protected the future of their people using their own hair as a vessel. That image alone says everything about resourcefulness, resistance, and the lengths people will go to carry their culture forward.
A Story Carried by Oral Tradition
What makes this book especially significant is how the story has survived. For generations, the account of Yaya and Paanza existed only in oral tradition — passed from person to person, kitchen table to kitchen table, with no official record or archive to lean on. It lived because people chose, again and again, to keep telling it.
A Night for the Rice Carriers marks the first time this story has ever appeared in print. That distinction matters. This isn’t simply a picture book with a compelling plot , it’s a preservation project, taking a piece of history that could have quietly disappeared and giving it a permanent home on the page, backed by backmatter text and photographs that ground the story in fact.
About the Author
Carmen Rubin is a historian, playwright, and literacy advocate who has spent more than two decades working in children’s literature. A Rutgers University graduate and former teacher, she built her career on the belief that children deserve to see themselves and their histories reflected in the stories they read.
Before she made her mark in traditional publishing, Rubin sold over 200,000 self-published books, a testament to the audience she had already built through independent work. Her debut title, Ashti Meets Birdman Al, later became a stage play, Ashti’s Journey to Jazz, which premiered at the Children’s Performing Arts Center in Minnesota.
Rubin’s commitment to legacy extends well beyond her writing. In 1999, she co-founded One Blue Village, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping underprivileged high school students pursue higher education. She currently serves on the National Advisory Board for Reading Is Fundamental. It’s a body of work that mirrors the themes of her latest book: passing something forward, and making sure the next generation has what they need to carry it.
Matt Williams brings the story to life visually, illustrating a book that Penguin Young Readers has already spotlighted at the American Library Association’s Annual Conference as a title to watch for in its Fall lineup.
Why This Book Belongs on Your Shelf
You do not need to have children to buy this book — and honestly, that’s part of the point. A Night for the Rice Carriers is a book about legacy, and legacy isn’t only something we pass down to children. It’s something we choose to hold onto, display, and share with the people in our lives who will appreciate it.
We’ll be purchasing our own copy to display, and we encourage you to do the same whether that means adding it to your own shelf or gifting it to someone who understands the weight of a story like this one.
A Night for the Rice Carriers is available now on Amazon.com
