Guitars (Made By Hand Series #4) by Patricia Lakin

 

Guitars by Patricia Lakin

(Made by Hand Series #4)

Aladdin, 2021, 32 pages

Available November 9, 2021

Guitars are such a popular instrument, but have you ever wondered about their history or how they are made? Well, just as she did in her previous Made by Hand books, author Patricia Lakin takes readers behind the scenes to learn all about both acoustic and electric guitars.

The first section begins with a definition a guitar as a long-necked, flat-backed string instrument with pear-shaped incurved sides, readers are introduced to the different parts of the two kinds of guitars. Not surprisingly, the acoustic guitar is a much simpler instrument than the electric guitar, which has so many more parts to it. And who would have guessed that the sounds a guitar makes is really just a matter of physics? But I leave that to the author to explain, who does a far better job than I could.

Next, the history of guitars in introduced. Interestingly, earliest guitar-like instrument dates back as far as 1490 BC, where it was found in Thebes, Egypt. In fact, cousins of today's guitars can be found throughout history and in various countries. 

Nowadays, electric guitars might be more popular than the acoustic guitar, but readers will learn exactly who an electric guitar works and it is way more complicated than I would have thought. But just how are these instruments made? To get a good idea about that, Lakin turned to Meredith Coloma, a luthier from Vancouver, Canada. A talented violinist since the age of 9, Meredith toured with a Celtic rock band. Once she graduated high school, she traveled to New York City and, instead of performing, apprenticed with an elderly violin maker there. Returning to Vancouver, Meredith took a course in guitar making, but something in her guitars was missing. She began an apprenticeship with luthier Roger Sadowsky in NYC, and began making guitars with just the right tone that she wanted. But Meredith wasn't quite satisfied, and apprenticed with luthier Michael Dunn in Vancouver. Now a luthier in her own right, Meredith makes unique guitars back in Vancouver. 

In the next section of the book, Meredith takes readers on a detailed tour of her workshop where she gives a step by step demonstration of how both an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar are made and it is fascinating to see. I had no idea just what went into producing a guitar that looks good and has great sound quality.

Finally (and this is one of my favorite sections of the books in the Made By Hand series), young readers can learn how to make their own telephone and harmonica using the science behind instruments like guitars or violins that vibrate when played by plucking strings. 

Guitars is a wonderfully informative book for budding musicians or really, for anyone interested in music, particularly guitars. The writing is accessible and there are lots of photographs and illustrations to help readers understand some of the finer, perhaps more complicated aspects of guitars (like the physics part that even I understood). Back matter consists of a list of great guitarists, a time line, and a glossary and list of resources.

This book is recommended for readers age 8+

This book was an eARC gratefully received from Casey Blackwell at Media Masters Publicity

Sonny Rollins Plays the Bridge by Gary Golio, illustrated by James Ransome

 

Sonny Rollins Plays the Bridge 

written by Gary Golio, illustrated by James Ransome

Nancy Paulsen Books. 2021, 32 pages

Imagine being a jazz musician and not being about to practice playing your saxophone every day in your own apartment because the beautiful sounds you make disturbs your neighbors.

Well, that was exactly the situation Sonny Rollins found himself in. So, Sonny leaves his house, taking his saxophone with him, and walking down Delancey Street, he heads straight  to a place where he knows he can play to his heart's content, and as loudly as he wants/needs to. Sonny continues walking until he reaches the Bridge, taking the walkway to the highest point of this long suspension bridge, he pulls out his sax and begins to play.  But "is that a/ strange/ place/ to play his/ horn?" No, not when you need to do it, not when you are compelled to play. 

There, standing mid-Bridge, Sonny can practice playing his saxophone as loudly as he wants against the background noise of the city, the busy East River below, including squawking seagulls, the passing subway trains, and all the car traffic by his side. It is the perfect spot for this talented jazzman to freely hone his skills without disturbing anyone.

You're probably thought that Sonny found what he needed on the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, but no, indeed. At the end of Delancey Street, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan where he lived is the Williamsburg Bridge and that Bridge and this Musician were perfect together.

Gary Golio is a picture book biography Meister with an already impressive oeuvre, and now, with the inspirational Sonny Rollins Plays the Bridge, he has once again proven this to be true. His poetic text reads like a jazz performance, by which I mean that instead of classical poetic forms, readers can feel the rhythmic beat and syncopation. It almost makes you want to snap your fingers as you read because of its musicality that capture's all of Rollins' moods and emotions throughout. 

Harmonizing with Golio's jazzy text are James Ransome's equally jazzy watercolor and collage illustrations. The illustrations range from detailed full color two page spreads to simple spot images, catching the busy streets of the Lower East Side as Sonny walks to the Bridge. I particularly liked the way Ransome represented the music from Sonny's horn - as various shapes of golden notes.

I love picture book biographies. They can be so inspiring and they are a wonderful way to introduce young readers to people and their achievements they might not otherwise learn about. And often, their stories show readers that problems and obstacles are solvable - and Sonny Rollins' is a prime example of that.

Back matter includes information about Sonny Rollins as well as the Williamsburg Bridge and Sonny's Words about how this book came to be.

FYI: In 1962, Sonny Rollins recorded an album simply called The Bridge. It was his first album after taking a 3 year hiatus from music during which time he practiced his saxophone on the Williamsburg Bridge. 

This book is recommended for readers age 6+

This book was gratefully received from the author.

Dark Was The Night: Blind Willie Johnson's Journey to the Stars by Gary Golio, illustrated by E.B. Lewis

Dark Was the Night: Blind Willie Johnson's Journey to the Stars 

by Gary Golio,

illustrated by E. B. Lewis

Nancy Paulsen Books, 2020, 32 pages

One of the things I love most about being a reviewer is that I get to read all kinds of picture books and share them with my young readers. And one of my favorite picture book genres is biography. I have been introduced to so many people I  probably never would have known about otherwise thanks to picture book biographies.  

Take for example this new biography about Willie Johnson, an African American musician. Willie was born in 1897 in a small Texas town. As a young boy, he lost his mother and at age seven, he lost his sight. 

Despite being blind, Willie made music - at first, with a cigar box guitar his father made for him, then in church and later busking on the streets, traveling about Texas with a guitar and a tin cup, hoping for enough money to buy food and get a rented room.

And Willie knew how to sing the blues, sliding his pocket knife up and down the steel strings of his guitar, and giving it a voice of its own.

Discovered on the street by a man from a record company, Willie was given a chance to make a record his music and went on to enjoy a music career. But the one recording that Willie became best known for was a heartbreaking yet hopeful emotional gospel blues song called "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground." 

Small wonder that in 1977, when NASA was choosing what to include on the Golden Record they were sending into space that reflected the diversity of who we are as a people on Earth, a recording of Willie Johnson performing "Dark Was the Night" was chosen with its simple message of hope and a reminder that we are not alone.

Dark Was the Night is not exactly a picture book biography filled with facts, dates and places, and yet, after I finished it, I felt like I knew the real Willie Johnson, the persistent musician who could use music as if it were his own voice to express himself and his truth. And one of the ways the author did this was by contrasting the sources of lightness and darkness that impacted Willie throughout his life. 

And Golio's writing is a perfect compliment to his subject- full of emotion and musicality. He begins Willie's story in deep, dark space and brings it full circle, where his music "shined a light in the darkness and finally touched the stars." 

Adding to Golio's lyrical text are E.B. Lewis's subtle watercolor illustrations done in a palette of predominately dark blues and bright yellows. This is one of my favorite illustrations because I feel it really captures the sense of light and darkness that was so much a part of Willie's life, but not allowing either one to dominate it.

Be sure to read the back matter to learn more about Willie Johnson and the Golden Record that carried his beautiful music into the far reaches of the Universe.

And if you would like to hear Willie playing "Dark Was the Night,", you can find it on YouTube HERE. I have been listening to it repeatedly and I guarantee it is well worth your time.

This book is recommended for readers age 6+

This book was gratefully received from the author, Gary Golio

Emmy in the Key of Code by Aimee Lucido

Emmy, 12, and her parents have just moved from Wisconsin to San Francisco so that her dad can pursue his dream of being a pianist in the symphony orchestra there. Her mom, an opera singer, has given that up and taken a regular job in order to make the move. Both parents are very musical, but no matter how hard she tries and no matter how much she loves and knows about music, Emmy just doesn't have musical bone in her body. Besides, past attempts at musical performance have left her with a bad case of stage fright. Now, however, she faces the task of making new friends at a new school and it's not easy. Each time she tries to introduce herself, she's interrupted. Until, finally, in computer class, a girl with braids introduces herself to Emmy.

It doesn't take long for Emmy and Abigail to become good friends, nor does it take long for Emmy to connect with computer coding, and teacher Frankie Delaney, a vibrant young woman who clearly loves what she does. Abigail has a beautiful singing voice, has been singing in the San Francisco Children's Choir for years and hangs out friends with a group of girls at school who want her to audition with them for a singing group called Honey Bees. But Abigail has been hiding the fact that she would rather code than sing, though she continues to act like being put into the computer class was a mistake. Emmy, hoping that Abigail will be her new best friend, is hurt when Abigail continues to eat lunch with her friends, leaving Emmy to eat alone.

Meanwhile, struggling with constant feelings of not fitting in and not being comfortable with who she is, Emmy must also deal with a budding misogynist bully named Francis in computer class, who misses no opportunity to let her know he thinks she is inferior and that there is no place in coding for girls. Adding to that is a falling out with Abigail, who refuses to respond to Emmy's apologies.

But after the class learns that their teacher is seriously ill, can animosities are put aside so that the students can still showcase their end of term coding projects in front of parents, teachers, and students to honor their teacher?

When I first began reading Emmy in the Key of Code, I thought I would be reading a novel about a middle grader girl who needs to find herself and her own voice in a completely new environment. Boy, was I wrong! Well, it is that, but more, so much more. It is a novel in verse, written from Emmy's point of view. And as Emmy becomes more proficient at coding, Lucido manages to skillfully weave in some basic Java code in places, creating a kind of poetry in code. Not an easy task, but she pulls it off beautifully. And the best part is that readers don't need to know coding to read Emmy's story, but do learn some coding along with her. Java terminology is explained within the text and in a glossary, as are musical terms.

One of the things I really liked is that Lucido didn't give Emmy a dead parent or two in her coming of age story. Instead, she took Emmy out of her comfortable environment in Wisconsin and set down in a completely new place, where her parents are so busy with their own problems of adjusting to the changes. Isolated from parents, friends, and teachers really highlights Emmy's feeling of not fitting in, but allows her to explore and discover her own identity and creativity away from parental interference or expectations of who she should be. It made for a very interesting journey. 

Young readers will also discover not only a good story but might even catch some of Frankie Delaney's enthusiasm for coding and her admiration for the women who were pioneered computers and programming during WWII while men were off fighting (pg. 154-55). In fact, pair this with Kate Hannigan's fun speculative fiction novel Cape (The League of Secret Heroes), which centers around the actual six women working on a programable computer called Eniac in Philadelphia in WWII.

I loved being pleasantly surprised by this novel and Emmy in the Key of Code should appeal to young readers whether or not they have an interest in learning to code, though the computer geek in me thinks all kids should learn some coding. Maybe this will stir up interest in it when they see what Emmy and her class can do.

A Reader's Guide can be downloaded HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was gratefully provided to me by the publisher, Versify, an imprint of HMH

Sonny's Bridge: Jazz Legend Sonny Rollins Finds His Grove by Barry Wittenstein, illustrated by Keith Mallett

Sonny's Bridge: Jazz Legend Sonny Rollins Finds His Grove

by Barry Wittenstein, illustrated by Keith Mallett

Charlesbridge, 2019, 40 pages

What better way is there to introduce young readers to some of the world's greatest artists than through a well-done picture book? And Sonny's Bridge is a perfect example of that.

Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins was born in 1930 when the Harlem Renaissance was in full swing - for musicians, that would be literally. Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Glenn Miller were some of the jazz greats during Sonny's childhood, popularizing a new swing sound. And Sonny already knew that being a jazz musician was in his future as he practiced his saxophone at home in the closet.

Later, during WWII, Sonny continued to practice, listening to a new generation of musicians, people like Charlie "Bird" Parker and John "Dizzy" Gillespie as they perfected a new sound called bebop. But even though he was too young to join the army, he also began to see the inequalities around him and to demonstrate for equal rights for all African Americans and to end Jim Crow laws.

Sonny and his saxophone Henrietta soon began to get some gigs, playing in "...fancy joints and two-bit joints./Two shows a night, two sets per show" and to gain so much recognition, he found himself playing in Carnegie Hall with other jazz legends.

But somehow, despite his success, at 29 years old, Sonny was dissatisfied and decided to leave the jazz world behind, believing that his name was bigger than his talent, that his fame had come too soon. His life, he decides, needed an intermission.

But as Sonny continued to play, he realized he also needed to finds a place to practice that wouldn't bother the neighbors, a place where he could play as much and as loudly as he needed to, a place that was right in from of his eyes - the Williamsburg Bridge, connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan. It was the perfect place to reconnect with himself: "seeking refuge and sol-i-tude. Finding inspiration, finding himself/in the echoes of the echoes of the echoes" on the walkway of the bridge.

Eventually, more confident in his sound and himself, Sonny goes back into the recording studio where his music, "enters a new dimension: his subconscious" and within two weeks, a new album with a new sound is produced and appropriately named "The Bridge." Sonny is back and better than ever!

Sonny's Bridge is such a perfectly wrought picture book for older readers. Wittenstein has written the text in a free verse style that resembles a jazzy bebob composition that Sonny might have played himself, capturing all the energy of bebop, and all the passion of this musical genius.

Mallett's digitally illustrations are bold and vibrantly colorful, carrying their own sense of rhythm that compliments both the free verse text and the excitement of the jazz scene to which Sonny belonged over the course of 40 years, from his years as a young listener and learner to his years as a self-assured musician and creator.

I also loved the design of this book as well as the content. Maybe it's because I'm old enough to remember buying record albums before cassettes, CDs, and now Vinyl. Albums always had a colorful cardboard jacket, and inside of it, the record was usually held in a brown paper sleeve with a hole in the center that showed the record label. And that is exactly the sense you get when you open Sonny's Bridge. And in keeping with musical traditon, Sonny's biography is set up like a gig itself - with a first set, and intermission, and a second set that harmonizes perfectly with Sonny's life.

There is plenty of back matter for further exploration into Sonny's life and music, and an excellent curriculum guide is available from the publisher, Charlesbridge, HERE 

This book is recommended for readers age 6+
This book was sent to my by the published, Charlesbridge Publishing

The Bear, the Piano, the Dog, and the Fiddle written and illustrated by David Litchfield

It wasn't so very long ago, in a book called The Bear and the Piano, that the bear who found a piano in the woods learned to play and became a worldwide sensation. And wasn't it wonderful that his bear friends from the woods missed him and kept track of what he was doing, then welcomed bear home for a visit, reminding him that they were the most important audience of all because they were his friends.

Now, somewhere on Bourbon Street in the brightly lit city of New Orleans, Hector plays his fiddle and Hugo the dog is his biggest fan. They have  spent a lot of years traveling and fiddling, but now Hector feels his act is old news and he packs away his fiddle. But Hugo isn't ready to give it all up. Unbeknownst to Hector, Hugo unpacks the fiddle and learns to play - and his music was toe-tappingly, finger-clickingly, whistle-blowingly AWESOME!

Meanwhile, Bear has decided to put together a band of musical animals and invites Hugo to join them. But even though he supports his friend Hugo, Hector feels mighty jealous. He really doesn't want Hugo to leave, and in his sadness and jealousy, he says some bad things to Hugo, things he is sorry about but  it's is too late to take back. 

Bear's Big Band is a hit everywhere they go. Hector listens to them on the radio, and misses playing his fiddle and making music, and really misses Hugo. When Bear's Big Band has a concert in New Orleans, Hector wants to go, but is afraid Hugo won't want him there. But he decides to buy a ticket anyway. And the music that Bear's Big Band plays is indeed mind-blowingly, toe-tapplingly, finger-clickingly AWESOME! But when Hector feels himself being led out of the concert hall by two security bears, he fears Hugo is still mad at him.

But no, Hugo has a big surprise for Hector, reminding him that they had some good times, some bad times, and some times apart, but that they would always be friends, "[b]ecause good friendship, just like good music, lasts a lifetime."

The Bear, the Piano, the Dog, and the Fiddle is every bit as charming and heartwarming as the first book. Litchfield deals again with the theme of friendship, but adds in themes of sadness, jealousy and forgiveness and all in language and pictures that are totally accessible to young readers. And though all the emotions dealt with are human, the fact that the characters are a mix of human and animal doesn't feel at all awkward and Litchfield cleverly doesn't put words into the mouths of bear or Hugo. I think doing that would have broken the mood he was trying to create and taken this story to a very different place.

Litchfield's mixed-media illustrations are colorful and energetic, just as the music of New Orleans is.

Pair this with The Bear and the Piano for a story time that will certainly please your readers, young and old.

This book is recommended for readers age 4+
This book was provided to me by the publisher, Clarion Books

The Roots of Rap: 16 Bars on the 4 Pillars of Hip-Hop by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Frank Morrison

Music is one of the most influential cultural expressions there is and hip-hop is a perfect example of that. As Carole Boston Weatherford points out in her new picture chronicling the history of rap and hip-hop and the people who made it happen, this was not a musical genre that sprang up out of nowhere. Instead it had its roots in the oral tradition of folktales, street rhymes and spirituals. These were the very same influences, she points out, on two of the greatest African American poets - Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) and Langston Hughes (1902-1967).

It all began in the 1960s, when James Brown hit the music scene and introduced the world to funk, a form of music that incorporates soul, jazz and R&B, with a funky bass line (emphasizing the downbeat or putting the emphasis on the first beat of a measure). And just as important was his message, "I'm black and I'm proud."

James Brown paved the way for rappers and in the 1970s things began to change. Inner city youth found creative expression in rapping. Other found it in a spray paint can, leaving their tags and other forms of graffiti on subway cars, billboards, bridges and buildings. Boom boxes made it possible for youthful street performers with a whole repertoire of moves to break dance to an audience of passersby, and deejays introduce the Jamaican dub, while in the Bronx DJ Kool ushers in the birth of hip-hop.

A proliferation of hip-hop performers were soon producing records and getting air time on the radio, not just changing music, but also influencing styles and clothing, and bringing a certain awareness to the world.

Weatherford is a master at crafting a story, and here she has presented a whole history in a mere 32 lines of poetry. I realized while reading this book just how she managed to accomplish that.

The beauty of hip hop is that each song tells a story. The story told in this book is about hip-hop's roots and beginnings using the form that makes hip-hop such a stand out musical genre. A hip hop song is generally 16 to 32 bars and every two lines should rhyme with each other. Unlike a bar in most musical forms, however, a rap bar is simply a sentence. In The Roots of Rap, Weatherford used a 32 bar rap, making this essentially a two verse "song." The first 16 bars are the roots of rap, while the second 16 bars are the beginning and rise of hip-hop and the performers who popularized it.

"A generation voicing stories, hope, and fears/found a hip-hop nation. Say holler if you hear.
From Atlanta to Zanzibar, youth spit freestyle freedom sounds/Hip-hop is a language that's spoken whole world 'round."

Since the words in a hip-hop song are also a form of poetry, if you are teaching kids different poetic forms you might want to include it and The Roots of Rap would be the ideal book to do that with.

Frank Morrison's bold, powerful illustrations sets a stage that unmistakably resembles kind of graffiti of the New York City rap culture of the 1970s when I was a kid and it was all around me. Each detailed two page spread compliments and enhances Weatherford's words, and together they bring their history of hip-hop to life.

The book begins with an introduction by rapper Swizz Beatz, and there is an Author's Note and Illustrator's Note, as well as a Glossary and a Hip-Hop Who's Who you won't want to miss.

The Roots of Rap: 16 Bars on the 4 Pillars of Hip-Hop is a wonderful introduction to rap and hip-hop, and should be a welcome addition to any music curriculum. However, I personally feel it is more of a picture book for older readers rather than the recommended 4 to 8 year old range.

This book is recommended for readers age 8+
This book was sent to me by publisher, Little Bee Books

Clayton Byrd Goes Underground by Rita Williams-Garcia

Nothing makes Clayton Bryd happier than sneaking off to Washington Square Park and playing his blues harp (a/k/a harmonica) with his beloved grandfather Cool Papa Byrd and his friends the Bluesmen, except possibly playing a twelve-bar solo. But all Cool Papa keeps telling his not yet. Then, the unthinkable happens and Cool Papa is gone from Clayton's life.

No sooner is Cool Papa's funeral over than his daughter, Juanita, Clayton's mom, decides to sell all his belongings - records, guitars, clothing, everything. All Clayton manages to salvage is Cool Papa's porkpie hat. Sad and angry, Clayton just doesn't understand why his mom is so bitter towards her father.

To make matters worse, Cool Papa always read to Clayton at bedtime, and no sooner does he return to school, when the teacher announces a new book for the class to read together - the very same book Cool Papa read to help Clayton fall asleep, the one he was reading when he passed away. When Clayton tells the teacher he has already read the book, could he please read another, she insists he read what the class is reading. But Clayton associates that book,  The Four Corners of the World with going to sleep and that's just what happens everything time the class begins reading it.

After finally getting suspended for constantly falling asleep when he should be reading, Clayton's mother takes his precious blues harp away. Angry and hurt, and still missing his grandfather, Clayton hatches a plan. The next day, instead of going to school, Clayton finds his blues harp, his grandfather's porkpie hat, and his money - all $17.00 of it - and heads to Washington Square Park to find and join the Bluesman. And that is just the beginning of Clayton's coming of age journey, thanks to the ragtag group of buskers he meets on the subway, and who are just trying to make some money performing hip hop underground.

There is so much going on in Clayton Byrd Goes Underground, I almost don't know where to begin. On the one hand, there is Clayton's story, the loss of the most stable person in his life, followed by  his anger and frustration at his mother and teacher for not understanding how profoundly his grandfather's death has impacted his young life. Then, there is his desire to recapture what he had with his grandfather by finding and joining the Bluesmen. But there is also Clayton's mother and her anger and frustration at her father for being gone most of her childhood, coupled with feelings of jealousy as she watches Clayton get the love and attention she had once wished to have, while she is now forced to work long shifts at the hospital to make ends meet.

Cool Papa had always said that "a bluesman ain't a bluesman without that deep-down cry" (pg 6) and that is just what Clayton's underground education helps him understand. Now, I've been riding the NYC subways my whole life and even I had a few breath-holding moments reading Clayton's experiences with those hip hop buskers he meets. And yet, kudos to Williams-Garcia for letting Clayton make wrong decisions and have those scary experiences.

The blues and hip hop, both African American musical and cultural genres. are the perfect musical accompaniment for Clayton Orpheus-like journey to the depth of the underworld to find a way to release his "deep-down cry." To his credit, it is his father who ultimately hears Clayton's cry, the father whose access to Clayton has always been limited by the angry Juanita but whose desire to be part of his son's life never flagged.

Clayton Byrd Goes Underground is an achingly realistic novel, and a brilliant coming of age tale for today young readers.

You can find a detailed, useful downloadable Discussion Guide for this book HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was an EARC received from Edelweiss Plus

Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday and the Power of a Protest Song by Gary Golio, illustrated by Charlotte Riley-Webb

This picture book biography for older readers tells two stories that are intertwined. First, it is the story of Billie Holiday’s life, a  life was never easy right from the beginning. Her  mother left her with an older half sister when she was a baby. At 10, Billie ended up in a reform school for something that wasn’t her fault. After she finally went to NYC to live with her mother, both of them ended up in jail when Billie was 14. 

But Billie Holiday loved to sing and jazz was her style of choice. She was hired by white bandleader Artie Shaw, and even though she was a spotlight singer on his tours, she still faced discrimination everywhere they went because of her race. Finally, Billie Holiday had had enough and she quit Artie Shaw’s band. Striking out on her own, she began to sing in a new Greenwich Village club called Cafe Society, a place with black and white customers and performers weren’t segregated. 

Cafe Society was opened by Barney Josephson, and it was here, in 1939, that Billie Holiday premiered a radical new song called “Strange Fruit.” High school teacher, Abel Meeropol, the son of Jewish immigrants, was so outraged by America’s racism and especially the violence faced by African Americans, that he wrote “Strange Fruit” after seeing a picture of a lynching. And that is exactly was “Strange Fruit” is about. And when Billie Holiday sang it at Cafe Society, it was always the last song of the night and all activity stopped until she was done. 

Strange Fruit is a very powerful biography about Billie Holiday, one that brings to light the way she was regarded because of her race from childhood on, and the shameful treatment she received because of it, despite being a popular black female singer with whites in the 1930s and 1940s.

And yet, as compelling and powerful as Strange Fruit is, I question who it if for. It is recommended for readers age 8+, but some young readers may be too sensitive for the material covered. I think it feels like a book that should be given to readers a few years older, readers who may have a better background understanding of what life was like for African Americans in this country before the Civil Rights Movement. 

Since “Strange Fruit” was a signature song for Billie Holiday, I think that as a book for older readers, Strange Fruit could be paired with Marilyn Nelson’s book A Wreath for Emmett Till to give students a more balanced picture, and a deeper understanding of the despicable practice lynching. I would have like to see more about Abel Meeropol but could not find a children’s book about the author of such a formidable protest song. I do know that Meeropol taught in the Bronx, and that he and his wife Anne adopted the two sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953 after they were executed.

Riley-Webb’s illustrations done in boldly textured brush stokes using acrylics and tissue collage, are as colorful and dynamic as the jazz Billie Holiday sang, and the sometimes light, sometimes dark images give the story being told a very dramatic intensity. 

The lyrics to “Strange Fruit” and additional biographical information about Billie Holiday are included in the back matter. 

You can find a Teaching Guide for Strange Fruit that was prepared by Vicki Spandel and recommend for older readers HERE. 

This book is recommended for readers age 8+ but I would definitely go older
This book was an EARC received from NetGalley

Jazz Day: The Making of a Famous Photograph by Roxane Orgill, illustrated by Francis Vallejo

By the late 1950s, jazz was as very popular and decidedly American art form, and so, in 1958, Esquire Magazine decided to do an article about it.  Graphic designer Art Kane got the job, but his innovative idea about how he wanted to do the article was different and risky.

Kane's idea was to invite as many jazz musicians as were willing to show up early in the morning on Tuesday, August 12, 1958 after a long night of playing in clubs and photograph them on the front stoop of a Harlem brownstone (17 East 126th Street, NYC, to be exact). Oddly enough, Kane was a big jazz fan, but he didn't even own a professional camera when he proposed his idea.  Esquire had put an open invitation out to members of the musician's union, Local 802, for anyone connected to jazz.  Would Kane's idea work?  Would anyone show up?  Kane was a wreck until musicians started to show up, 57 in all, and so did a bunch of neighborhood kids.

Jazz Day is a collection of 21 jazzy, free verse poems that describe the events of that iconic moment in the history of jazz.  Some of the poems describe the scene as the day unfolds on East 126th Street, the difficulty of getting so many musicians to listen to instructions when they are busy greeting each other - "they don't notice/too busy with how you been....musicians/don't hear/words of instruction/only music"

Musicians can be q quirky bunch and Roxane Orgill has really captured that trait.  There is a poem detailing how some of the great jazz musicians got their nicknames, including Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday called Lady Day by Lester Young, who was called Pres, considered to be President of the Tenor Saxophone.  One of my favorites is "How to Make a Porkpie Hat" about Lester Young's iconic hat. And there is "Late" about Thelonious Monk, late because he had spent so much time picking out what to wear.  This was followed by a fun Alphabet poem listing what musician were wearing.

Orgill also gives voice to some of the kids who were there for the day - a young girl sitting at her front window twirling a lock of hair, watching and wishing she could be down there, too, waiting for it all to be over so she can go out and play.  Then, there are the 12 boys sitting on the curb next to Count Basie, jostling each other, thrilled to be in the presence of such a great musician.

The 1950s was the golden age of jazz and that is just what the Esquire article called their article.  In the end, it is the photograph that has lived on.  The book includes a two page spread of the photograph that was finally used,  and a praise poem for the cool, calm Art Kane for letting the chaos of the day determine his photograph.

Francis Vellejo's has painted his own jazz composition with his acrylic and pastel illustrations that perfectly capture the chaos, the excitement, the confusion, the grandeur of the musicians, in fact, all the events of the day.  Be sure to take a close look at all of them to discover some wonderful details.

This is a wonderfully imaginative poetic homage to these great jazz musicians, some of it based on fact, some come from imagination, all come from a clear love of jazz.  Back matter included Biographies of the individuals named in the poems, sources beyond the Esquire article, Source Notes, a Bibliography, Articles, Audiovisual Material and Websites for further reading and investigation.

This book is recommended for readers age 8+
This book was purchased for my personal library

Art Kane's Photo - The Golden Age of Jazz

Echo, a novel by Pam Muñoz Ryan

Today I want to share the post I wrote about  this book for my other blog, The Children's War, simply because I found this to be such an enchanting novel.  

When young Otto goes missing in a German forest during a game of Hide and Seek, he meets three princesses, sisters named Eins, Zwei and Drei (One, Two and Three).  The sisters were brought to a witch by a midwife after their father, the king, rejected them for not being the son he wanted.  Now, they have been cursed by the witch to live in a small clearing, unable to leave until they save a soul from death's door.  The sister's hope comes from the prophecy each were given by the midwife when she left them with the witch: "Your fate is not yet sealed/ Even in the darkest night/ a star will shine/ a bell will chime/ a path will be revealed."

As an adult, Otto becomes a master harmonica maker, but when one of them is destroyed in an important order for 13 harmonica's, he decides to include the one that each of the sisters had played.  One the bottom of the harmonica, he paints the letter M.

The story skips now to Germany in 1933, just as Hitler comes to power.  For 12 year old Friedrich Schmidt, life is hard.  Not only was he born with half is face covered in a wine colored birthmark, and Friedrich can hear music in his head and has an uncontrollable need to conduct it, making his a target of the other kids and earning him the name Monster Boy.  A loner, Friedrich finds the M marked harmonica in an abandoned factory.  The music from it is like no other he has ever heard before.  After his father is arrested and sent to Dachau, Friedrich becomes a target of the Nazis despite the fact that his sister is an important member of the Hitler Youth's League of German Girls.  Though he is about to audition for the music conservatory and realize his dream of conducting, Friedrich realizes he must try to free his father and escape Germany.

The story skips two years to an orphanage in 1935 Pennsylvania.  Mike Flannery and his younger brother Frankie are adopted by Mrs. Sturbridge's lawyer Mr. Howard on the spot when it turns out that they can play piano beautifully.  The adoption is done to meet the requirements of the will left by Mrs. Sturbridge's father.  But when Mike learns that Mrs. Sturbridge is planning on have the adoption reversed, he makes a deal with her.  If her keeps Frankie, he will audition for a travelling harmonica troupe of young kids.  After all, he has a harmonica marked with an M that makes an especially beautiful sound.

The story jumps to California in 1942.  Japanese Americans have just been rounded up and sent to internment camps.  For Ivy Lopez and her parents, that means a job and the possibility of owning land, having a permanent home and never needing to move from job to job.  Her father new job is caring for the house and land of an interned family, the Yamamotos, whose oldest son is serving in the army.  Ivy, who has come into possession of a harmonica marked with and M that makes an especially beautiful sound from her old school, is excited to join the orchestra in her new school, until she discovers that the Mexican American students don't attend the main school, going to a ramshackle annex instead. 

Three different stories bound together in space and time by one harmonica marked with an M but how do their destiny's connect?  Ryan ends each story with a cliffhanger, but it all comes together in the end.  In the meantime, she shows the reader how music can be a sustaining force even in the most difficult times.  Each of the characters must deal with situations that are rife with hate, suspicion and intolerance to suffering for those who are different and helpless in some way. 

Ryan uses the technique of a Rahmenerzählung, framing the three stories with the story of Otto and the fairytale story of the three sisters, giving it a nice magical element.  Ryan holds the reader in suspense about every one's destiny and how they connect until the very end, but it is a delicious kind of suspense. 

Echo is an enchanting novel that carries a message of hope, even throughout the scary parts, but readers should still read it with a willing suspension of disbelief to really get  appreciate the entire story.

This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL (but I liked it so much, I've decided I need to buy a copy for my personal library)

The Cosmobiography of Sun Ra by Chris Raschka

Since the theme of Black History Month this year is A Century of Black Life, History and Culture, I thought I would look at this picture book about a very talented African American musician who contributed to making jazz one of the most beloved musical forms around the world.  Jazz has its roots in African American communities, beginning in New Orleans, and spreading quickly to St. Louis, Chicago and New York and the reast of the world and it is considered by many to be a quintessentially black musical art form.

Herman (Sonny) Blount in Birmingham, Alabama in 1914, it quickly became evident that he was a musical genius.  He was a talented piano player by 11 and as a teen, Sonny could notate, compose and even had his own ensemble with singers.  But Sonny was too ordinary an name for someone who felt they really had come from Saturn, so Sonny became Sun Ra.

Sun Ra also noticed that blacks and whites lived separate, very different kinds of lives.  And when the US went to war, he refused to fight and kill people, spending those years in a Pennsylvania forest as a conscientious objector.

When the war ended, Sun Ra was off the Chicago, mastering jazz, do-wop and the blues.  Forming his own bank, the Arkestra, it was time to hit the jazz clubs of New York City, arriving in the 1960s.  From there, the sky was the limit, playing his particular brand of jazz around the world, wearing long colorful robes, necklaces and shiny metal crowns.

Raschka introduces the reader and draws them into the life of Sun Ra by playing a game of let's pretend - let's pretend that Herman Sonny Blount really did come from Saturn (but we know it is only pretend, right?).  He keeps up the conspiratorial tone throughout the book, thereby creating an intimate bond with his readers.  Raschka's colorful watercolor and ink illustrations, done in a palette of fittingly bold black and mostly primary colors, give the feeling of jazzy improvisation throughout the book.

Sun Ra may not be as well known as other jazz musicians like Dizzy Gillespie or Thelonious Monk, but Raschka's obvious love of jazz has now made him and his music accessible to a whole new generation of readers and hopefully, jazz lovers.

And The Cosmobiography of Sun Ra would pair up very nicely with Rascha's other jazz musician biographies - Charlie Parker Played Be-Bop, John Coltrane's Giant Steps and Mysterious Thelonious - for some very jazzy fun.

This book is recommended for readers 7+
This book was sent to me by the publisher, Candlewick Press

February is Black History Month

This is book 3 of my 2015 Nonfiction Picture Book Reading Challenge hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy

Tito Puente: Mambo King - Rey del Mambo by Monica Brown, illustrated by Rafael López

Tito Puente was a great musician and a real New York City fixture.  And now, Monica Brown has written a colorful picture book about him and his music for young readers, and the best part is that it is bilingual so that it is accessible to both English and Spanish readers - children and their parents, since this is a wonderful read-aloud book.

Monica Brown is no stranger to writing bilingual biographies of important and influential Latinos.  She has written My Name is Celia: the Life of Celia Cruz, My Name is Gabito: the Life of Gabriel Gracia Márquez and Pelé, King of Soccer, among others.  Tito Puente: Mambo King is her most recent biography and tells the story of Puente's muscial life, which began at home in Spanish Harlem NYC, tapping out a musical beat on pots and pans as a toddler, and how he went on from there to become a band leader and five time Grammy winner.  Brown focuses the book only on Puente and his musical achievements as a well-known, well-respected Latino musician, leaving out the details of his personal life which might detract from that.  

Maybe I am a little biased because I grew up hearing Puente's music, but this is a book I can't recommend enough.  There are few enough good bilingual books out there and even fewer good read-aloud books, but Tito Puente: Mambo King is a real standout.

And, at a time when so many music programs are being cut from school budgets, books like this can really help a classroom teacher introduce students to various artists and the music they play.  Just time of the possibilities!

One of the things I really love in a picture book is when the text and illustrations reflect each other and feel totally connected and that is really the case here.  The illustrations by Rafael López are bright bold and colorful and as musical as the salsa music Puente played and the words that Brown used to describe it.

To get the real flavor of Tito Puente: Mambo King, listen to Brown and López describe the book themselves:

So, grab this book, make a nice Puente playlist for some real background ambiance and enjoy!

This book is recommended for readers age 4+

This book was Morningside Heights Branch of the NYPL

Nonfiction Monday is hosted this week by Andromeda at A Wrung Sponge

This is book 3 of my 2013 Nonfiction Picture Book Reading Challenge hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy