Pub Date: January 3, 2012
Dewey: B
Lexile Code: 0600
Features: Dust Cover, Illustrated, Price on Product - Canadian, Price on Product
Target Age Group: 04 to 08
Physical Info: 0.60" H x 11.10" L x 9.60" W ( 1.15 lbs) 40 pages
BISAC Categories:
Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography and Autobiography | Performing Arts | Cultural and Regional | Social Topics | Prejudice Racism and Colorism
Description: Singer, dancer, actress, and independent dame, Josephine Baker felt life was a performance. She lived by her own rules and helped to shake up the status quo with wild costumes and a you-can't-tell-me-no attitude that made her famous. From bestselling children's biographer Winter and two-time Caldecott Honoree Priceman comes a story of a woman the stage could barely contain. Full color.
Brief description: Marjorie Priceman, illustrator of many acclaimed picture books, has won Caldecott Honors for her illustrations in Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin! by Lloyd Moss and Hot Air: The (Mostly) True Story of the Frist Hot-Air Balloon Ride, which she also wrote. She lives in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
Review Quotes: Jazz Age Josephine
Jonah Winter, illus. by Marjorie Priceman. S&S/Atheneum, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4169-6123-9 The life of entertainer Josephine Baker isn't an easy one to translate to the picture book form, but Winter and Priceman attack her story with a gusto worthy of Miss Josephine herself. Opening with her impoverished childhood in St. Louis, Mo., Winter (Barack) uses the riffs and rhythms of the blues music structure to show how a young Josephine embraced an energetic stage presence early on ("So Josephine made funny faces, stuck out her tongue, and crossed her eyes./ Yes, Josephine made funny faces, stuck out her tongue, bugged out her eyes"). Leaving town due to racial strife, Josephine fled to New York City, broke onto Broadway, and--fed up with racist roles she was asked to play--decamped for France. Winter switches up his rhythms to match the mood, first with jazzy staccato blasts ("Gay Paree!/ Josephine!/ Here's an act/ they've never seen!") and later with a more contemplative ballad. Caldecott Honor artist Priceman (Hot Air) contributes exuberant gouache and ink paintings that capture Josephine's every impish facial expression and knee-knocking, hip-shaking dance move. It's a rollicking tribute to a remarkable, trailblazing woman. Ages 4-8.