FORMER national track representative-turned-educator and entrepreneur Danielle Dowie has re-imaged the classic Christmas figure Santa Claus with a Jamaican twist in her new book, Rasta Santa.

In a bold and an exciting move, Dowie ‘Jamaicanises’ Santa using a Rastaman to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas — love and family.

In this cross-cultural re-imagining of classic Saint Nick, Dowie pens the story in bilingual English and Jamaican rhyming text as she continues to create literature written in Jamaica’s native language.

Young Jamaican readers especially should delight in seeing characters that represent them and that they can relate to, and even more importantly, they can see, read, and learn a language they identify as their mother tongue and use to create a host of art in the form of music and stories.

Dowie invites children all over the world to read Rasta Santa in English or have some fun learning a few new Jamaican words in this ‘irie-spirited’ Christmas Rasta affair.

Dowie, who hails from the seaside town of Port Antonio in Portland, specialises in storybooks for children. She is the author of Waa Gwaan Jimi: Welcome to the Jungle and With My Permission: A Child’s Guide to Consent children’s books.

She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 2014 and represented Jamaica internationally in athletics for more than 10 years.

Published by Danidow Publishing LLC, Rasta Santa is available online at Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, and islandwide by placing an order via 876-387-2574 or e-mail info@danidowpublishing.com.