Jazz by Walter Dean Myers
Holiday House, 2006, 48pp.,$18.95
Historical Fiction/Poetry
ISBN: 9780823421732
Start with rhythm
Start with the heart
Drumming in tongues
Along the Nile
A black man’s drum
Speaks
LOVE
Start with
RHYTHM
Start with
the HEART
Work songs
Gospel
Triumph
Despair
Voices
Lifted
From the soul
This author uses alluring, emotional, decorative, water colored sketches of African American men and women to infuse his lines of poetry. The phenomenal illustrations and typography sustain, engage and entice the reader to follow the savvy, historical story line demonstrated in this line “…Horns tearing down Jericho walls…” The author utilizes musical depictions to assist the young reader who is not familiar with musical terminology or history by offering hints within the script as to what he is referring to. Myers went the extra mile by including a glossary of the jazz terms to help the reader to better understand the words of the poem and to assist in expanding their musical vocabulary illustrated in “…Black men sweating in 4/4 time…”. He contributes to the reader’s comprehension by pointing out the significance jazz has played in history by offering a chronology timeline for their review. The author lists many African American jazz musicians who have impacted jazz throughout its era in American history. Myers explores and relates the civil rights movement by infusing each musician’s personal struggles to become successful in their own right as he stated in this quote “Louie, Louie, how you play so sweet...” Throughout the story he gives an insight to Black culture in a positive tone. He uses text features to indicate a change in sound and rhythm as it relates to rap or other popular music of today. I feel that this type of poetry caters to an audience between the ages of 8 to 14 because it is hip, real-life and understandable to today’s youth. Young readers will truly enjoy this book and the importance of jazz and its history. Teachers can incorporate this book into music, art, social studies and language arts lesson plans when discussing the history of America or Jazz.
Interested in other adolescent historical jazz books, then check out the following:
Charlie Parker Played Be Bop by Chris Raschka
This Jazz Man by Karen Ehrhardt
WOW! You did a great job on this. I like the way you started off using the poem. Is it from the book? I remember catching glimpses of the book when you brought it to class and I must say the illustrations did look very interesting and colorful. I especially enjoy books that can be incorporated into different subjects and you made the teacher aware of that in your blog. I also like the fact that Jazz is something that was borne out of struggle, frustration, and suffering-yet is positive and shows black culture as you say "in a positive light.". The correlations between it and the civil rights movement could be a valuable and enjoyable teaching tool. You seem to have covered all the requirements as set forth in the rubric.
ReplyDeleteThanks. The poem is from the book.
ReplyDelete