(GLCs: Click here for grade level guidelines.)
Date(s) Used: Mar. 2010
Synopsis:
Parker, who illustrated Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan’s Sibert Honor Book Action Jackson (2002), contributes both words and pictures in this heartfelt portrait of jazz great Tatum. Parker pushes the limits of the book’s nonfiction cataloguing by speaking in the pianist’s first-person voice, but an author’s note and a solid bibliography set the episodes in a framework of established facts. The vibrant scenes, in Parker’s familiar style of scratched ink lines and watercolor washes, show young Tatum playing at home for his dancing parents, at church for a full choir, and at local clubs, where he is discovered and his international career begins. In some images, crowds of dancers and musicians create a swirl of animated motion; in others, Parker sets Tatum, who was nearly blind, against a deep, moody, abstract background of shifting colors. Throughout, the simple, direct language shows the power of the music for both Tatum and his listeners. “When I am at the piano . . . I play clouds of notes, rivers of notes . . . I forget that my eyes aren’t good. I have everything I need.” Cue up the music; children will best appreciate this beautiful tribute with an earful of Tatum at the keyboard. Grades 2-4. --Gillian Engberg
Discussion topics: To be posted soon ...
Craft ideas: To be posted soon ...
*Note: These craft ideas are just suggestions.
You can use them, but you don't have to use them.
You can expand upon them, or add your own twist.
Remember, though, that the focus of your time should
not be on the development and execution of a craft;
the focus should be on the read-aloud and the
enjoyment of the book!
