Book Descriptions
for Blues Journey by Walter Dean Myers and Christopher Myers
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Walter Dean Myers’s picture book poem illustrates the connection between blues music, poetry, and the real-life events that inspire them. Each page includes a powerful collage-style drawing in dark, bluesy hues and four lines of poetry in the familiar call-and-response style found in the blues. The themes are typical of traditional blues music, including the horrors and joys experienced by African Americans in the United States. The glossary explains the symbolism of a handful of recurring images commonly used in countless songs. The book finishes with of timeline of major events in the history of blues. Winner, CCBC Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Discussion (Ages 9–14)
CCBC Choices 2004 . © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2004. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
The blues aren't all sad. There's joy in the blues as well as heartbreak. Love discovered. Love lost. Love just around the corner.
In this beautiful tribute to the poetry and art of the blues, renowned author Walter Dean Myers collaborates with his son, award-winning illustrator Christopher Myers, in a true masterpiece of picture book creation filled with struggle, grief, hope, joy, and love.
Each original blues-style verse on a page calls out a response from the artist in striking tones of brown, black, white, and blue. Together, father and son weave an enchanting story of the creation of the blues through the experiences of African Americans from the end of slavery through the beginning of the civil rights movement.
This book is for older children who love music and their parents who will appreciate the layered sophistication of the striking artwork and interplay between art and text.
Includes an author's note explaining the birth and development of the blues, a timeline of blues milestones, and an explanatory glossary of terms in the blues. Together this content deepens the appreciation for the blues as a truly original art form.
A Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor book
An ALA Notable book
Horn Book Fanfare Selection
Kirkus Reviews Editor's Choice
New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age
A Children's Book of the Year, Child Study Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College
In this beautiful tribute to the poetry and art of the blues, renowned author Walter Dean Myers collaborates with his son, award-winning illustrator Christopher Myers, in a true masterpiece of picture book creation filled with struggle, grief, hope, joy, and love.
Each original blues-style verse on a page calls out a response from the artist in striking tones of brown, black, white, and blue. Together, father and son weave an enchanting story of the creation of the blues through the experiences of African Americans from the end of slavery through the beginning of the civil rights movement.
This book is for older children who love music and their parents who will appreciate the layered sophistication of the striking artwork and interplay between art and text.
Includes an author's note explaining the birth and development of the blues, a timeline of blues milestones, and an explanatory glossary of terms in the blues. Together this content deepens the appreciation for the blues as a truly original art form.
A Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor book
An ALA Notable book
Horn Book Fanfare Selection
Kirkus Reviews Editor's Choice
New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age
A Children's Book of the Year, Child Study Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.
