Jazz

Author: Walter Dean Myers
Illustrator: Christopher Myers
Publisher: Holiday House
ISBN: 978-0823415458

As a musician, naturally, I am drawn to all things musical. It is no surprise that Jazz caught my eye back in 2006 when it was first published. In 2007, Jazz received a Coretta Scott King honor for illustration.

Jazz is a complicated creature. As Myers explains in the book's introduction, jazz is a fine mixture of "improvisation and spontaneity." I have been a singer of jazz (specifically bebop) for years now, but I did not take my first formal jazz course until my junior year of college. Jazz's introduction (which, because of the vocabulary, is much more suited for the adult reader than child), Myer's sums up my formal jazz education in a lengthy two page history of jazz.

Jazz consists of fifteen poems ranging from the African origins of jazz to bebop, swing and New Orleans Jazz. The poetry is catchy and rhythmic, and I can hear the music in my head as I am reading along. This is especially true with the bluesy poem "Oh, Miss Kitty" which beings with the lines. "Oh, Miss Kitty she's as round as she is tall, I said oh, Miss Kitty, she's as round as she is tall."

I'll be honest, I am much more captivated by Christopher's Myers' intense illustration than WDM's poetry. The pictures are alive with bright and intoxicating colors. My favorite, beside the poem "Twenty Finger Jack" is a striking painting of a man in with red pinstripes, playing stride piano, grazing a keyboard with his long fingers.

Jazz offers a glossary of jazz terms as well as a brief jazz timeline towards the end of the book. This poetry picture book is an excellent introduction to jazz for kids of any age!