Duke Ellington: the Piano Prince and His Orchestra (Picture Book 3/6)

Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra
Andrea Pinkney, author
Brian Pinkney, illustrator
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Paperback: 32 pages
Publisher: Hyperion Book CH (December 12, 2006)
Coretta Scott King Book Award, Honor Book, 1999.
Randolph Caldecott Medal, Honor Book, 1999.
Category: Picture Biography.
Style: Expressionist
Media: Mixed: scratch-board renderings with luma dyes, gouache, and oil paint. 
5/5 stars

Duke Ellington: the Piano Prince and His Orchestra is a brief biography of Duke Ellington, the great jazz pianist and orchestra leader. It only mentions the happy, good events in Ellington's life and seems intended to spark an interest in jazz music in general, and Ellington in particular.

Mrs. Pinkey writes in vernacular, dropping the“-ing”, talking directly to the reader and using slang from the jazz era. This gives the book a quick rhythm, a jazzy feel, and makes it a joy to read aloud. Her metaphors for the music are colorful and descriptive, at times poetic.

Mr. Pinkney uses bright colors and bold lines to express the feeling of music being played. The colors add to the jazzy, joyful rhythm of the words. The texture from the scratch-board technique gives depth to the illustrations. The bold, curving lines propel the eye around the page, following the drawn music. Overall, the art gives the impression of movement, vitality and most of all, of music.

The intended audience is preschool age up to around age 8. This is too dense of a book, both in amount of words and amount of story covered, to be appropriate for a typical four year old. On the other hand, it is such a lively book to read out loud, it might hold a preschooler's attention despite a disinterest in and lack of understanding about the subject. For the school age child, I don't think it would be an appropriate read-alone book, for the reason mentioned above but also because many of the slang words will need an explanation.  It would be most effectively used as a read-aloud book to celebrate famous African Americans or to introduce jazz.

Baboushka and the Three Kings (Picture Books, 2/6)

Baboushka and the Three Kings
Ruth Robbins, author
Nicolas Sidjakov, illustrator
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Paperback: 32 pages
Publisher: Sandpiper (October 27, 1986)
Winner: Randolph Caldecott Medal, 1961..
Category: Folk story.
Style: Folk art
Media: Tempera, felt tipped pen
4/5 stars


Robbins retells a Russian folk tale in Baboushka and the Three Kings, in which the three Wise Men from the Christmas story stop at Baboushka’s house and invite her to come with them. She says she is too busy, but after they leave is filled with a yearning to see the child of which they spoke. The next morning, she leaves to find them, asking everyone “Have you seen the Child”; not having found him, she still searches every Christmas season, leaving gifts for children on her way. Robbins tells the story in a very straight-forward way, using no rhyme or repetition, and the story has no particular rhythm to it. It is intentionally Christian in theme, as well as didactic. Regardless, it is a lovely story and well told.

Sidjakov is obviously influenced by Russian traditional art. Babouska is drawn to look like a Matryoshka doll, with the traditional red cheek circles, head scarf, and 19th century Russian clothing. The illustrations are simplistic and stylized and perspective is generally skewed. Once the medium is known, the use of felt tip pen is obvious in his heavy black lines. Blue, yellow and red are used to fill in some parts of the illustration, but he used the negative space to color others. This is especially effective in the snowy village scenes. The end result is rustic and charming, and yet reminiscent of a majestic Byzantine icon. All in all, the illustrations give the book a most distinct Eastern European feel, and accentuate Robbins’ story.

Robbins uses large words in her narrative, most likely too difficult for the intended audience; certainly too difficult for early reading alone, and most likely so for read aloud as well. It would not be appropriate as a classroom teaching book in most public school settings, given the overt Christian tone, though it could perhaps be used in classrooms of students older than the intended audience to discuss Russian folk stories.

Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions (Picture Books 1/6)

I've been a bit busy this summer, with the classes I've been taking.  One of which is a Literary Criticism course, focusing on Children's Lit.  So, I've still been reading, but it's been all juvenile lit instead of for pure pleasure, though I have to stay I'm loving it and the books.  I worked hard on these six "reading responses", so I thought I might as well share them; got a perfect score for them, by the way. :)

Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions
Margaret Musgrove, author
Diane and Leo Dillon, illustrators
Reading level: Ages 4-8*
Paperback: 32 pages
Publisher: Puffin; P edition (July 15, 1992)
Winner: Randolph Caldecott Medal, 1977.
Category: Non fiction concept book.
Style: Realism/traditional/folk art
Media: Pastel, watercolor, acrylic, ink
5/5 stars


Musgrove uses the alphabet book concept to showcase 26 traditional African cultures. For each one, she explains a custom about that culture in one paragraph. Each entry emphasize the variety in the cultures she has chosen. There is no particular rhythm to the prose, she does not use rhyme or repetition, and for that reason it is not an exciting book to read aloud.

For each culture represented, the Dillons illustrated a detailed, realistic family or community scene. Each scene is framed with the same knot design, and each contains a male, female, and child of that particular people, as well a depiction of their home and fauna native to their part of Africa. Despite this planned similarity, each scene is unique. The Dillons depict each tribe with varying skin tones and facial features, use a wide variety of colors and patterns and apparently did extensive research to make each scene accurate. Though they have attempted to be realistic, their style is also traditional, reminiscent of a fairy tale book, with soft lines, gentle shading and muted colors. In addition, the perspective is somewhat stylized, adding a folk art feel. Their illustrations combine well with Musgrove’s writing, as they both work together to bring out the beauty and mystique of a culture foreign to most readers.

It is intended for the standard picture book age*, and may not be appropriate. Preschoolers may not be mature enough to understand or be interested in other cultures yet, though these illustrations could be enticing enough to make them want the book read aloud. Many of the terms will be too advanced for early readers, making this one that will need to be read with an adult for the majority of those in the intended age range. A teacher could use this when discussing African history, and it could certainly spark discussion about the difference in cultures and traditions.

*note: I have since found out that Amazon has this rated for the wrong age group; according to the Children's Literature Comprehensive Database it is intended for grades 4-5.

The Penelopiad (and the end of the Once Upon a Time Challenge)

The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus

Margaret Atwood

Hardcover: 224 pages

Publisher: Canongate U.S. (October 5, 2005)

The Penelopiad is a retelling of the Iliad and the Odyssey from Penelope's point of view. It is told in first person by Penelope, thousands of years after the event as she drifts through Hades, and by the twelve maids who serve as a sort of Greek chorus, telling their version in a variety of ways from poetry to rhyme to courtroom drama.  Atwood turns the traditional story of Odysseus around on it's ear, when she makes Penelope the center of the tale.  New angles and possibilities arise, both from Penelope's telling and from the accusations of the maids.  Odysseus's twenty year absence becomes, not a rousing adventure tale, but a burdensome trial for a wife to bear and Atwood skillfully takes the reader through a spectrum of emotions as Penelope and the maids deal with this ordeal.

A knowledge of Greek mythology and Homer's original tale is a must to appreciate the changes, both subtle and dramatic, that Atwood has made.  Without that background, I doubt the reader would find any enjoyment in this novel.


Atwood's talent is clear in The Penelopiad as she deftly uses a variety of narrative styles.  The result is a retelling that is at times shocking in it's difference, and believable enough to become entangled with the original, leaving the reader questioning.

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This was read for the "mythology" category of the Once Upon a Time Challenge, finishing the requirements for "Quest the Second".  I read two super good books for this challenge, this one and American Vampire.  I wouldn't have read this one, but for this challenge, and I'm grateful for the challenge for making me look at American Vampire in a different light.  Many thanks to Carl V for hosting this excellent challenge!

Folklore, American Vampire, and the Once Upon a Time Challenge

I read American Vampire (Volume One) back at the end of March (review) and it has stayed on my mind.  A lot.

In the various musing on it that I have done, I realized that it is perfect for the "Folklore" category of Once Upon a Time Challenge and I'm shocked that I didn't see it at first.  That's the thing about a book like this, though.  It is so layered it takes months to peel away at it; and the more I peel, the more I find.

Folklore takes the customs of a group of people and tells it in story form, usually (to my layman's mind) using a lot of exaggeration and showing that particular people to be something special.  Think of the Jack tales, if you will.

Snyder and King (especially in King's half of the novel) have taken the vampire legend and made it something completely American, indigenous only to this breed of people.  In short, they've created a new folklore.

If you like vampire stories, or the Wild West, or revengeful women, or. .. heck, just as long as you like to read but don't mind a little gore (okay, even if you DON'T like to read; this might be a good starting point), give this one a try.  Let it marinate for a while afterwards and see where it takes you.

Darn fine book.

In the Garden of Beasts

In the Garden of Beasts
Erik Larson 
Hardcover: 464 pages 
Publisher: Crown; 1st edition (May 10, 2011)
reviewing ARC, courtesy of Amazon Vine
5/5 stars

In the Garden of Beasts is an amazing book.  It is a nonfiction account that reads with the ease and entertainment of a good novel.  When I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it.  When I was reading it, I was engrossed.

Larson uses letters, journals and papers to tell the story of William Dodd, U.S. Ambassador to Germany in the thirties, of his daughter (Martha), and of Hitler's rise viewed through their eyes.  Martha, socialite and party to many romantic escapades, found herself in a position to garner information that the Ambassador couldn't know and become the center of several intrigues herself.  As for Ambassador Dodd, as he became more disillusioned with (and ultimately more fully aware of) Hitler's Germany, he became more of an outcast with the "in crowd" of the State Department, creating an entirely different, but important, conspiracy of sorts.

Despite knowing the ultimate outcome of the Dodds' adventure, In the Garden of Beasts is still a page turner and thoroughly fascinating.  It was with reluctance that I turned the last page, and said good bye to these people that had consumed my mind so completely.

Larson's apparently has the ability to write a biographical account in such a way that makes it more enjoyable than most fiction.  (I've not read The Devil in the White City*, but that has been moved to the top of my to-read list.)  I can not recommend this enough, regardless of your interest in the subject.  My initial interest was not high, but I came away with new understanding and knowledge of the time period, US and German politics, and ultimately, human nature. In the Garden of Beasts is a must read.

*I did read The Devil in the White City and it was a five star read!

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Anita Loos
4/5 stars

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes has long been one of my favorite movies, so I was tickled to discover that it was a magazine serial first. Until I stumbled across the book, I had just assumed that Loos wrote it for the screen.

Lorelei is a beautiful blonde with a conflicting amount of predatory logic, downright dumbness and a deep conviction of her own intelligence. The book is the journal she kept during the few months she was traveling abroad (her fiancé, Mr. Eisman is "educating" her) with her friend Dorothy, who "really does not care about her mind and I always scold her because she does nothing but waste her time by going around with gentlemen who do not have anything".

Mr. Eisman (never called Gus, because "when a gentleman who is as important as Mr. Eisman, spends quite a lot of money educating a girl, it really does not show reverence to call a gentleman by his first name") makes the mistake of not going with Lorelei, and so with just Dorothy to chaperone, she makes conquests of kind rich men all across Europe.

Loos has written an amusing story, and though at times I got tired of the purposeful misspellings and grammatical errors, I enjoyed it from beginning to end. The few not-as-interesting parts were completely forgotten as soon as I read another one of Loos' little gems such as "Well, it's been three days since my debut party started but I finally got tired and left the party last night and went to bed because I always seem to lose all of my interest in a party after a few days" or "So, she found a box of liqueur candies that are full of liqueurs and she was really very delighted. So I finally got dressed and she threw the empty box away and I helped her down stairs to the Dining room."

If you've seen the movie, you should definitely read this as it gives a little more depth to Lorelei. If you've not, the book will still be a fun trip back to the 20's where bootleggers, gold diggers and millionaires party side by side.