Myers, W.D. (2006). Jazz, New York: Holiday House.
ISBN: 9780823415458
This father/son collection of poems is a stunningly illustrated ode to jazz. Rhythm and rhyme permeate every poem, allowing the reader to "hear" elements of jazz.
Media: Black-inked Acetate over Acrylic
Subjects: Music, Jazz, Musicians, Instruments
Ages: Grades 6-10
Rating: 5Q/5P
Literary Devices: Onomatopoeia: "oh be-bop be-bop oh whee/OH WHEE" and "Thum, thum, thum and/thumming (I feel the ocean rhythm/ coming)."
Rhythm: "I'm out here swinging from the start, can't get no higher/We got bump in the beat where the crazy rhythms meet. This band's on fire!"
Curricular Connections: Music, History, Black History Month, Poetry
Artwork: Christopher Myers’ illustrations are a stunning companion to the text in Walter Dean Myers’ Jazz. Created by painting back ink on acetate and placing it over acrylic, the pictures are vivid images of jazz musicians playing their instruments and people dancing. Each image uses a range of color, providing depth, detail and contrast. The effect of the images is the creation of an undeniably celebratory tone.
The illustrator’s brush strokes often flow in a circular motion or distinct line patterns. These patterns emphasize the rhythm of each song. Further, the lyrics to each song are written on the same acetate over acrylic method used to compose the pictures. Although the colors of these particular pages vary, this consistency creates a cohesive element to otherwise separate songs and illustrations.
km 6/24/09
Myers, W.D. (2006). Jazz. New York: Holiday House.
ISBN: 9780823415458
Illustrator: Myers, C.
Media: Black-inked acetate over Acrylic
5Q/3Q
Curriculum Connection: Grades 5-8; Music, Language Arts, Cultural Studies
Literary Application: Rhyme
A rhyming tribute to jazz, some examples include: “I’ll take you as far as I can go/I’ll blow as hard as I can blow…” and “Thum, thum, thum, and thumming/I feel the midnight passion humming” and “’Cause the jazz that we’re playing/And the licks that we’re laying/And the dues that we’re paying/And the blues that we’re slaying…”
Literary Application: Rhythm
Appropriately, Jazz has rhythm. Beyond the rhyming prose, the type font also adds rhythm throughout the text. For example, one poem reads in white font straight across the page, “We got jiving in our bones, and it won’t leave us alone—we’re really moving” and underneath this line, in a scrawling black cursive font and indented five spaces in is the word “jiving” followed by another indentation and the word “bones”… This formatting is repeated, one sentence a white linear font, the next a two word indented black cursive font – this textual juxtaposition emphasizes (and enhances) the natural rhythm of the prose.
Annotation: Father and son team, award-winning author Walter Dean Myers and award-winning artist Christopher Myers, capture the essence of jazz textually, visually and historically, in other words: perfectly.
5.18.08 cjm
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