A triumphant fanfare for a great American composer.
How a child of Russian immigrants set out to write music that sounded like his new country.
“This is a story about music,” writes Mang, repeating the line often enough that it becomes a refrain. Within a subtly rhythmic account of how Aaron Copland became one of this country’s most acclaimed and successful composers, the author describes how he learned to incorporate street sounds from his Brooklyn childhood, strains of jazz heard in Harlem, symphonic techniques learned in Paris in the 1920s, and, later on, melodies from Appalachian and Mexican folk traditions into orchestral and ballet music that profoundly “sounds like America.” Both in the main section and the lengthy afterword, Mang beautifully captures her subject’s thinking and process: “Symphonies are decadent with layers and layers of sound. Aaron seeks something new. ‘What if we make space for new things to grow?’” Some of his “smashing, crashing” compositions did confuse many listeners, and in the backmatter, she frankly acknowledges that thanks to being Jewish, gay, and deeply engaged in leftist social causes, he sometimes ran into difficulties, particularly during the McCarthy era. Still, few American instrumental compositions are played more to this day. In her joyfully, effervescent illustrations, multiracial, multicultural groups sing, dance, and march on the way to a final display of modern young music lovers who are the most diverse of all. “What do you hear? What song will you write?” she asks them.
A triumphant fanfare for a great American composer. (suggested listening, bibliography) (Picture-book biography. 6-9)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9780593693711
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: today
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era.
The New Orleans school child who famously broke the color line in 1960 while surrounded by federal marshals describes the early days of her experience from a 6-year-old’s perspective.
Bridges told her tale to younger children in 2009’s Ruby Bridges Goes to School, but here the sensibility is more personal, and the sometimes-shocking historical photos have been replaced by uplifting painted scenes. “I didn’t find out what being ‘the first’ really meant until the day I arrived at this new school,” she writes. Unfrightened by the crowd of “screaming white people” that greets her at the school’s door (she thinks it’s like Mardi Gras) but surprised to find herself the only child in her classroom, and even the entire building, she gradually realizes the significance of her act as (in Smith’s illustration) she compares a small personal photo to the all-White class photos posted on a bulletin board and sees the difference. As she reflects on her new understanding, symbolic scenes first depict other dark-skinned children marching into classes in her wake to friendly greetings from lighter-skinned classmates (“School is just school,” she sensibly concludes, “and kids are just kids”) and finally an image of the bright-eyed icon posed next to a soaring bridge of reconciliation. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era. (author and illustrator notes, glossary) (Autobiographical picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-75388-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
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