A powerful union of text and image transmutes itself into a work of art—and it explains what the blues is, besides. Walter Dean Myers takes fragments of blues songs and creates an arc of poetry with them. His son, Christopher, using only brown paper, blue ink, and white paint, creates a visual counterpoint to the words that sometimes reflects them and other times goes to a different but related place. In his one-page introduction, the elder Myers describes the blues as coming from the encounter between the five-tone scale and the call-and-response singing of African music, and the American idiom. This volume comes as close as you can in print to reproducing the feeling of the blues, even as Chris Raschka did for Bird in Charlie Parker Played Be Bop (1992), and does it in a way that small children can grasp. “Hollered to my woman, / she was across the way” shows a boy and his grandmother hovering over an open book; “Misery loves company, / blues can live alone” shows two boys sitting on a curb, one turns from the other. “If you see a dollar, tell it my full name” faces a portrait of a young man against a wrought iron fence. He holds his shoe up to his face and looks steadily through the hole in its sole to gaze at the viewer. Myers fils wields his limited palette in extraordinary ways: figures are blue and blue-black and brown, they have a sculptural presence against dark or light backgrounds, and their postures respond strongly to the words. “Blues, what you mean to me? / Are you my pain and misery, / or my sweet, sweet company?” Children will see both replies in the pictures and in the sweet dark rhythm of the words. (Picture book. 6-11)
Pub Date: March 15, 2003
ISBN: 0-8234-1613-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2003
A lovely and poetic recasting of the Biblical creation story in a modern spirit, from the versatile Grimes (My Man Blue, p. 721, etc.). Father and son create together, beginning “Once upon a time there was no time.” There are whimsical touches, e.g., the father calls the waters seas because he likes the sound of it; the stars are made of the son’s laughter, and some of them are angels in disguise. Adam and Eve appear in shimmering silhouette, and the final view of the earth echoes the glorious photographs taken from space. Morin’s illustrations make use of fabulous textures in paint and fabric; his dense collages in their dark jeweled colors include shells, beads, and needlework. Other contemporary creation stories, such as Julius Lester’s What a Truly Cool World and Caitl°n Matthews’s The Blessing Seed (both, 1998) could be used with this one for a tender trilogy. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8028-5104-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999
Old MacDonald had a farm, and on his farm animals pop up, wiggle, and roll their eyeballs. This hilarious paper-engineered version of the classic song will engage readers of all ages. The illustrations are amiable cartoons, while the mechanics of the pop-ups are superb. Old MacDonald’s tractor shakes its rear tires; a row of hungry cows roll their eyes and chew their cuds with enthusiasm. Not only are the movements funny, but the pull-tabs are tough—this book was designed to handle heavy use—and will probably survive even library circulation. (Pop-up. 2-5)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-531-30129-X
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
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