Morton’s seminal role in jazz deserves both celebration and elucidation; this disjointed treatment mainly accomplishes the...
Winter offers a speculative look at the life and musical career of jazz innovator Jelly Roll Morton.
Weaving a quasi-poetic text in the second person, an adulatory narrator addresses readers: “Here’s what could’ve happened / if you were born a way down south / in New Orleans, in the Land of Dreams / a long, long time ago.” Talented Morton played piano in bars as a boy; his great-grandmother threw him out for being a “LOWLIFE MUSICIAN.” Regarding this trauma, the narrator contends: “just one thing in the world, / could make the crying stop: // And this is why / and this is how / a thing called JAZZ got invented / by a man named Jelly Roll Morton. / Leastwise, that’s what / I thought I heard Mister Jelly Roll say.” Winter intersperses italicized lyrics from several songs in Morton’s repertoire, adding an invented verse to one. While the text pivots on Morton’s self-promotion as the inventor of jazz (which music historians both debate and dispute), the choice of an unreliable narrator arguably muddies still waters. Mallett’s acrylic paintings use red-golds and blue-blacks to evoke sunset and twilit tableaux filigreed with musical notation. Morton is mostly shown from behind or in silhouette; the cover portrait and one interior one, painted from different decades without attribution, don’t cohere.
Morton’s seminal role in jazz deserves both celebration and elucidation; this disjointed treatment mainly accomplishes the former. (author’s note, recommended listening, bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 5-10)Pub Date: June 16, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-59643-963-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Neal Porter/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2015
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look...
Winning actually isn’t everything, as jazz-happy Rooster learns when he goes up against the legendary likes of Mules Davis and Ella Finchgerald at the barnyard talent show.
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look good—particularly after his “ ‘Hen from Ipanema’ [makes] / the barnyard chickies swoon.”—but in the end the competition is just too stiff. No matter: A compliment from cool Mules and the conviction that he still has the world’s best band soon puts the strut back in his stride. Alexander’s versifying isn’t always in tune (“So, he went to see his cousin, / a pianist of great fame…”), and despite his moniker Rooster plays an electric bass in Bower’s canted country scenes. Children are unlikely to get most of the jokes liberally sprinkled through the text, of course, so the adults sharing it with them should be ready to consult the backmatter, which consists of closing notes on jazz’s instruments, history and best-known musicians.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58536-688-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
Delightful.
Kenyan orphan Kitoo discovers ice hockey through his love of reading.
When the librarian at the orphanage offers Kitoo some old books that will be discarded, he is thrilled to own books. One of the books about sports shows people playing ice hockey. The librarian, Mrs. Kyatha, explains what ice is and tells him that people play roller hockey in a park in a nearby city. Kitoo is enthralled, but even with his active imagination and hopefulness, he is sure he will never get to see hockey in real life. But on his next trip to the city with the orphanage’s driver, he finds a way to go to the park and watch the hockey players, and on his way out, he finds discarded roller blades in the trash. He brings the skates home, gets help fixing them, and practices skating until he is skilled. His best friend, Nigosi, encourages him to hope that he may see ice one day, but Kitoo’s imagination won’t stretch that far. But with some help from mentors and his friend, he gets to visit the only ice rink in all of East Africa. This simple story of discovery, sport, and friendship is filled with likable characters and innocently joyful moments. Its basis in the real-life Hope Development Centre orphanage (founded by co-author Mutinda’s parents) makes its themes of hope, hard work, kindness, and triumph all the more memorable. Full- and half-page black-and-white illustrations bring the boys’ adventures to life.
Delightful. (Fiction. 5-10)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4598-2361-7
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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