Dizzy - Hardcover

Jonah Winter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0439507375 ISBN 13: 9780439507370

Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2006

Synopsis

From the author of FRIDA comes a jangly, jumpy, beboping book about Dizzy Gillespie, the clown prince of jazz.

This is the story of Dizzy Gillespie, a real cool cat who must have been born with a horn in his hands, judging from the way he played the trumpet. Jazz was his ticket on a train to better days, and he left his hard life in a small town for New York City and the hottest band around. But did Dizzy stand straight and play right? NO! He was a clown. He hit high notes, low notes, never-been-heard notes, and before he knew it, Dizzy created a whole new music: BEBOP.

This is a story about a boy who breaks all the rules -- and finds his own personal heaven along the way.

About this title

About the Author:

Jonah Winter has written many exciting picture book biographies for children, with subjects that include Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Barack Obama, and Dizzy Gillespie. He lives in Pittsburgh, PA.

Review:

Kikrus Starred
The syncopated rhythms of bebop form the backbeat to this introduction to Dizzy Gillespie.
Winter sets his stage with a firm delineation of young Gillespie's character: A little boy who was the
target of bullies and the victim of an abusive father found an outlet with the trumpet, and turned
himself into a clown. The narrative focuses on Gillespie's own emotional and artistic journey,
celebrating his desire to take risks until the very thing that had gotten him into trouble / so much /
being a clown, breaking all the rules / had become the thing that made him great, / . . . . ” The text
breaks into ecstatic scat while the illustrations move from representational art to abstract depictions of
the jagged sounds of jazz. Qualls's acrylic-and-collage images employ a muted palette of pinks and
blues and beiges, and compositions vary from scenes of daily life to poster-like montages, effectively
establishing Gillespie as larger than life. The narrative culminates in a priceless image of Dizzy
shov[ing] the angel Gabriel out of the way / and show[ing] him how to play / Bebop.” OOP BOP
SH'BAM!” (author's note) (Picture book/biography. 5-10)

Boolist*STAR*
There have been many books about jazz for young readers, a peculiar topic because, as a rule, it's not a form of music that children have an affinity for, if they are familiar with it at all. But, together, Winter and Qualls make it work. That's because Winter recognizes that if he can get readers interested in a character-in this case, trumpet revolutionary Dizzy Gillespie-they will want to learn more about his music. And Qualls is able to translate the story (and the music) into shapes and colors that undulate and stream across the pages with a beat and bounce of their own. The story of "one real cool cat" begins with a South Carolina childhood full of blue notes. Poor, abused, and angry, young John Birks Gillespie has his life turned around after a teacher gives him a trumpet. In a two-page spread, a river of red--his anger in living color--bursts out of Gillespie's new horn as he blows "REALLY LOUD." An explanation of jazz follows, and it is simple enough for the audience: "You took a melody and played it all different ways . . . changed every phrase-it was crazy." That is followed up with a bit more illumination dear to kids' hearts: "If a melody was like a rule, jazz was like breaking the rules, like inventing new rules. Jazz was like getting into trouble." Tracing Gillespie's ascent in the New York jazz world of the early 1940s, the story catches the excitement of the city, meshing it with the trumpeter's crazy personality (which earned him the nickname Dizzy); meanwhile, the artwork zigs and zags in color combinations that evoke the nightclub scene-greens, tans, a bit of peach, all counterpointed with muted grays. An author's note fills out Dizzy's story and lauds him for a personal life that was as composed as his music was wild. Turn up the stereo: kids will want to hear it for themselves. -Ilene Cooper
HB
Young John (later Dizzy) Gillespie was a cutup and attention seeker who was fired from several bands because of his lack of seriousness. But his sense of play and hot-dog musicianship allowed him to become one of the innovators of be-bop as well as a great jazz trumpeter and singer. Winters (author of Frida, rev. 3/02) uses rhyme, repeated text, and unexpected line breaks to reflect Dizzy's musical style. Most of the time this works well, encouraging readers-aloud to perform the text with a jazzy rhythm and to emphasize the occasional large, bold-type word like one of Dizzy's sudden high blats. The text does include a few passages that slow the pace or use disappointingly predictable rhyme ("So he boarded a train and moved up north / to a place they call Philly. / Right off the bat, / he got a job in a jazz band / and

About this edition

• Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0439507375
• ISBN 13: 9780439507370
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 48
• Illustrator: Sean Qualls