John Coltrane wasn't born playing jazz. No sirree. But, he was born into a wondrous world of a cacophony of sound. There was the sound of the food cooking in the pot, the sound of the sermon and the sound of the choir. There was the sound of the Scoutmaster and the sound of tears. These were the sounds that he "breathed...into a bold new song." These were the sounds that were all around him waiting to be played. What sounds do you hear in your own world? Who will you become?
32 pages 978-0805079944 Ages 4-9
Keywords: jazz, performing arts, music, musician, African American, African American author, diversity, diverse books, 5 year old, 6 year old, 7 year old, 8 year old
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
********** Young John Coltrane was all ears. And there was a lot to hear growing up in the South in the 1930s: preachers praying, music on the radio, the bustling of the household. These vivid noises shaped John's own sound as a musician. Carole Boston Weatherford and Sean Qualls have composed an amazingly rich hymn to the childhood of jazz legend John Coltrane.
Before John Was a Jazz Giant is a 2009 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book and a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.---from the publisher
