LS5663 - Module 5 - Hopkins Award Poetry - Book Review

Myers, Walter Dean. 2006. Jazz. New York: Holiday House. Illustrated by Christopher Myers. ISBN 9780823415458.

I happen to love everything written by Walter Dean Myers! He is one of my absolute favorites and I promote him to my high school students as often as possible. In this book he is celebrating the "jazz" musical style through words and pictures, but they are so infectious when read aloud, that you can't help but to start tapping your toes and snapping your fingers. I have no idea how he creates that "magic" but it is there! I almost swear that I could hear a saxophone in my head.

There is an interesting explanation of the creation of jazz at the beginning of the book that helps to set the reader up for a very enjoyable experience. Most of the poems don't have a rhyming pattern, but they have a rhythm that can easily be felt, with lots of repetition of phrases and words. The first time I read this book, I read it silently to myself, but for the second reading, I had to do it aloud. The words beg to be heard spoken aloud. Many of them feel loud, and sing-song, and silly-fun even. Others are an introduction or further explanation into the African American musical culture. Some refrains are not even words at all, but musical sounds, like "be ba boodie, be ba boodie, boo." These words become the music in your head.

The illustrations are bold and bright, and fabulously colorful! The images depicted are helpful to the reader in understanding and feeling the music of the words. They are very impressive.

At the end of the book, there is a glossary of jazz terms, which I loved and found very useful. Also, included is a "Jazz Time Line" that helps to provide the history of this wonderful musical form.

This is a wonderful book that begs to be read aloud and shared. One of my favorite poems is:

AMERICA'S MUSIC

What did the world see?

What did the world hear?

Black men sweating in 4/4 time

Behind the beat, around the beat

Bending the in-between

Strings crying like midnight widows

Horns tearing down Jericho walls

A clarinet sassing

Its way through

a Sunday-night sermon

And the chorus calling out blues!

And ragtime!

And jazz!

From Mississippi to Harlem

While the folks across the ocean

were just saying

AMERICA.

This poem provides a sense of equality among all men, regardless of color or race. I like this, and I think that children will feel this as well.

As an extension activity to this book, it would be fun to bring in some jazz music and to share with the children, everything from the ragtime to the swing, and have the kids to act out playing the various instruments that they hear. This would get them moving and feeling the music. Jazz may be a type of music that most children are not familiar with, and what a great introduction!