reviews

October 1
"DIZZY" is in stores! Read what people are saying below:

Publisher's Weekly
***** STARRED REVIEW
Winter adds a winning volume to the burgeoning array of picture books about jazz giants. Written in up-tempo, occasionally rhyming free verse, the narrative trips off the tongue. ... Readers need not know anything about the man's music to appreciate the character at the center of this verse, which nimbly sketches his rise from swing band sideman to one of cool jazz's supreme innovators:

"'Bebop .'/ That's what Dizzy called/ this crazy kind of jazz/ that he had invented just/by having the courage to be himself."

Qualls's expressionistic acrylics, in a palette of cool grays, blues and chalk white, bloom with the blaring hot red and pink streams of sound emanating from Dizzy's horn. The artist gets the cheeks and the jazz patch just right, along with the postures of various cats onstage. And the author plays softly on the theme that one can convert a flaw (as a boy, Dizzy was famous for breaking rules) into a strength.

Kirkus Reviews
***** STARRED REVIEW
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)

School Library Journal – OCTOBER 2006
***** STARRED REVIEW
Gr 3-8–Through a powerful marriage of rhythmic text and hip and surprising illustrations, the unorthodox creator of Bebop comes to life. Beaten regularly by his father, the young Gillespie found escape in a trumpet given to him by his music teacher. “For the boy with the horn/fueled with a FIRE/that burned with every whooping,/JAZZ was like a fire extinguisher./It was cooooooool.” He went on to become a crowd-pleasing performer, loving jazz because it “...was like breaking the rules,/like inventing new rules.” Later, in New York, he began playing his own music. He called it Bebop: “It was like he had taken a wrecking ball/and SMASHED IN/The House of Jazz,/till the walls came tumbling down….” Winter’s lively writing pops with energy and begs to be read aloud. Qualls’s acrylic, collage, and pencil illustrations swing across the large pages with unique, jazzy rhythms, varying type sizes and colors, and playful perspectives, perfectly complementing the text. This is a book that has a message: “…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….” But most important, it is a delightful story that introduces readers to an influential and unique American musician.
–Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WI

September 12, 2006 Read review of Dizzy from PlanetEsme
DIZZY (NONFICTION)
PICTURE BOOK
DIZZY by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Sean Qualls (Scholastic)
Dizzy Gillespie started out as a roughneck, lashing ut after the outrageous slings and arrows that his father delivered. "Then one day, his music teacher gave himn a trumpet. he picked it up/and blew that thing as hard as he could. That felt GOOD! He took all the anger he felt inside and blasted it out through the end of his horn. IT WAS REALLY LOUD!" What started out as musical retaliation becomes a joyful noise, as young Dizzy practices his way down the path of a young musician, making notes that soared like birds, blew like a fire extinguisher over a fire, notes so high, so fast, so low, diddly diddly bop...brick by brick, creating a house of bebop, and a nation of appreciative listeners.

"If melody was like a rule, jazz was like breaking the rules,
like inventing new rules.
Jazz was like getting in trouble--
it was FUN!"

This true story of an American original has musical language that plays on the tongue in a way that children will find a pleasure to hear. The illustrations are folksy and retro, geometric and flowing, blues and mauves, oh so cool; listen to Gillespie's "Salt Peanuts" while you look at the pictures, because that's what the illustrator listened to while he painted them! In every way, this book hits the high note. (7 and up)