Bravo! (author’s note, illustrator’s note, timeline, bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 6-9)
Slade illuminates George Gershwin’s creative process, from inception to premiere of “Rhapsody in Blue.”
“I frequently hear music in the very heart of noise.” Gershwin’s assertion in the epigraph propels this playful portrait of one of American music’s greatest innovators. Young George plies New York’s streets, hearing classical music in penny arcades and jazz outside Harlem clubs. He takes piano lessons, creates music scrapbooks, sneaks into concerts, and writes songs, selling his first at age 17. Later, “Swanee,” plucked out on a “bumpy bus ride,” sells millions of copies, making Gershwin famous. Seeking to legitimize jazz, bandleader Paul Whiteman plans “An Experiment in Modern Music,” inviting Gershwin to perform. George plans a “dazzling, daring piece.” Bound for Boston on business, he’s inspired by the train’s accelerating syncopation: “Rattle-ty-BANG! Rattle-ty-BANG!” His favorite musical forms “blended together into one beautiful rhapsody. George heard his concerto. He even saw the notes on paper!” Innerst’s acrylic-on-paper compositions, in a striking palette of indigo, sepia, and white, whimsically evoke both the period and the composer’s creativity. Young George roller-skates past brownstones with shop signs that reflect his musical immersion: “Sharp & Sons,” “Allegro Co.” The final spread marvelously integrates words and images as the premiere ends. “No one had ever heard anything like it. Except George. He’d been hearing beautiful music all his life.” George sits at the concert piano, in tails—and roller skates.
Bravo! (author’s note, illustrator’s note, timeline, bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62979-099-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
A succinct, edifying read, but don’t buy it for the pictures.
Abraham Lincoln’s ascent to the presidency is recounted in a fluid, easy-to-read biography for early readers.
Simple, direct sentences stress Lincoln’s humble upbringing, his honesty, and his devotion to acting with moral conviction. “Lincoln didn’t seem like a man who would be president one day. But he studied hard and became a lawyer. He cared about people and about justice.” Slavery and Lincoln’s signature achievement of emancipation are explained in broad yet defined, understandable analogies. “At that time, in the South, the law let white people own black people, just as they owned a house or a horse.” Readers are clearly given the president’s perspective through some documented memorable quotes from his own letters. “Lincoln did not like slavery. ‘If slavery is not wrong,’ he wrote to a friend ‘nothing is wrong.’ ” (The text does not clarify that this letter was written in 1865 and not before he ascended to the presidency, as implied by the book.) As the war goes on and Lincoln makes his decision to free the slaves in the “Southern states”—“a bold move”—Lincoln’s own words describe his thinking: “ ‘If my name ever goes into history,’ Lincoln said, ‘it will be for this act.’ ” A very basic timeline, which mentions the assassination unaddressed in the text, is followed by backmatter providing photographs, slightly more detailed historical information, and legacy. It’s a pity that the text is accompanied by unremarkable, rudimentary opaque paintings.
A succinct, edifying read, but don’t buy it for the pictures. (Informational early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-243256-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
The legions of fans who over the years have enjoyed dePaola’s autobiographical picture books will welcome this longer gathering of reminiscences. Writing in an authentically childlike voice, he describes watching the new house his father was building go up despite a succession of disasters, from a brush fire to the hurricane of 1938. Meanwhile, he also introduces family, friends, and neighbors, adds Nana Fall River to his already well-known Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs, remembers his first day of school (“ ‘ When do we learn to read?’ I asked. ‘Oh, we don’t learn how to read in kindergarten. We learn to read next year, in first grade.’ ‘Fine,’ I said. ‘I’ll be back next year.’ And I walked right out of school.”), recalls holidays, and explains his indignation when the plot of Disney’s “Snow White” doesn’t match the story he knows. Generously illustrated with vignettes and larger scenes, this cheery, well-knit narrative proves that an old dog can learn new tricks, and learn them surpassingly well. (Autobiography. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-399-23246-X
Page Count: 58
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1999
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