Dizzy - Jonah Winter

Illustrated by Sean Qualls
Arthur A. Levine Books, Scholastic, 2006
HC $16.99
48 pages
Rating: 4
Endpapers: Chocolate brown
Cover: pinks and brown
Quite eye-appealing

Dizzy Gillespie invented Bepop. And Jonah Winter tells his story creating bepop with his words!

"On certain nights
he'd elbow the piano man
off the bench
and play the keyboard with his left hand
and the trumpet with his right

The older musicians --
they soon got tired
of these shenanigans --
they wanted him fired!

'Not a chance," said the boss,
"this kid's a WIZ -- '"

What a great read-aloud! Follow along on a map - South Carolina to Philadelphia to Ney York, then, listen to a piece of his music! It'll stay with kids a long time.

The illustrations flow across the pages like the music, like the words.

(Winter wrote this book while snapping along to "Night in Tunisia" and "Salt Peanuts") There's additional biographical information in the author's note at the end of the book.)