ChildrensPictureBook.info Review

Hot Jazz Special
Author: Jonny Hannah
Publisher: Candlewick Press

The graphics, layout, and text of this children's picture book shouts hot jazz. Charlie Parker, Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and many other great jazz artists get their moments of celebration in this joyful proclamation of the glories of jazz. Scat, swing, blues, Dixieland...it's all here and all vibrant. The text and graphics have a decidedly syncopated rhythm that may be distracting or difficult for some children. The brief biographies of the jazz greats and the two-page spread at the end of the book that gives the entire text in a more readable format are somewhat helpful in overcoming this difficulty. I do wish that Candlewick Press had added a CD to this book. Having the book read by someone who understands the rhythms of jazz including snippets of music from the jazz artists described would have made this book perfect. Although it's a very visual picture book, it's really an aural book that cries to be read aloud.

Hot Jazz Special

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