Doo-Wop Pop

A school janitor named Doo-Wop Pop comes to the aid of several shy children, teaching them to sing and have confidence in themselves.

Starred Review. Kindergarten-Grade 5—Collier's cut-paper and painted collages and Schotter's words sing, snap, and sashay throughout this story of a former doo-wop singer and his newfound protégés. Mr. Searle's identity is developed in a series of visuals that start on the title page. The cream-colored sweats he wears while performing his soft-shoe with a broom contrast with the pastel suit and pompadour he sported while crooning behind a microphone. The tale is told through the eyes of Elijah Earl, one of several shy kids at the African-American school where Doo-Wop Pop is the janitor. He corrals these students after-hours, and, in teaching them how to make music without instruments, helps them discover unique strengths and the joy of community. His instruction to "collect all kinds of sounds" so they can find their own has the children listening to the "squawking talk of blackboard chalk" and "papers folding, teachers scolding, the tickity-tock of our classroom clock." Paragraphs that look like prose surprise and delight as the rhyme kicks in and the rhythm builds, lines flowing effortlessly. Pop's doo-wop scatting is distinguished by a larger, distinctive blue font. Collier's scenes pulsate with pattern and pizzazz. Stairways mimic piano keys, spotlights are shaped like explosive stars, blackboards are fragmented into shades of blue. The raplike fluidity of the text and the theme of finding fulfillment through musical expression are elements that will resonate with audiences. Endpapers featuring names of '50s a cappella groups provide a reason to get the party started with a be-boppa bang.—Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library
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This book’s title page begins with three 1950s doo-wop singers looking on as a contemporary elementary-school custodian pushes a mop bucket. Turn the page, and Mr. Searle, the custodian, becomes Snow Man, lead singer of the Icicles. Singing into his long-handled broom, Mr. Searle educates the inner-city students surrounding him about the legacy of doo-wop, as well as the honor and joy that come from making music. After becoming mentor to the young narrator and four of his classmates, he brings the young people together to form a group of their own. Schotter stacks the prose with rhymes, giving the first-person narrative an authentic, contemporary freestyle flow that begs to be read aloud. Collier’s trademark collage paintings, shaded in dark gray and burgundy and peppered with bursts of yellow and green, hum with the students’ energy and pride. This celebration of a historical genre of music will easily reach contemporary kids, the voices of the future. Preschool-Grade 3. --Thom Barthelmess