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megatsunami's review
4.0
Love this book, which my daughter randomly pulled off library shelves, drawn in by the little girl on the cover. When we got it home, I learned it was about the childhood of an amazing jazz pianist, Mary Lou Williams. This story is beautifully told (nice use of sound - alliteration, rhythm, rhyme - in the writing) and the pictures are clear and evocative. I liked that it is primarily about her childhood and just brings in her adulthood in the last couple of pages - age-appropriate.
One small quibble - for a few pages the book describes other kids in her neighborhood and school being mean to Mary, calling her names, and throwing rocks through her family's windows. Based on the pictures (the other kids are clearly white) and the time period, I'm assuming this is racism, and I thought it would have been useful to explain this clearly. I guess the authors were trying to stay positive as they portrayed how Mary felt the mean words were "bad sounds" and transcended them through her music... but I thought the book was sophisticated enough in other ways that it could have been worked in.
One small quibble - for a few pages the book describes other kids in her neighborhood and school being mean to Mary, calling her names, and throwing rocks through her family's windows. Based on the pictures (the other kids are clearly white) and the time period, I'm assuming this is racism, and I thought it would have been useful to explain this clearly. I guess the authors were trying to stay positive as they portrayed how Mary felt the mean words were "bad sounds" and transcended them through her music... but I thought the book was sophisticated enough in other ways that it could have been worked in.
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