Dizzy [Hardcover]

Jonah Winter (Author), Sean Qualls (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

From the author of FRIDA comes a jangly, jumpy, beboping book about Dizzy Gillespie, the clown prince of jazz.

This is the story of Dizzy Gillespie, a real cool cat who must have been born with a horn in his hands, judging from the way he played the trumpet. Jazz was his ticket on a train to better days, and he left his hard life in a small town for New York City and the hottest band around. But did Dizzy stand straight and play right? NO! He was a clown. He hit high notes, low notes, never-been-heard notes, and before he knew it, Dizzy created a whole new music: BEBOP.

This is a story about a boy who breaks all the rules -- and finds his own personal heaven along the way.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 3-8–Through a powerful marriage of rhythmic text and hip and surprising illustrations, the unorthodox creator of Bebop comes to life. Beaten regularly by his father, the young Gillespie found escape in a trumpet given to him by his music teacher. For the boy with the horn/fueled with a FIRE/that burned with every whooping,/JAZZ was like a fire extinguisher./It was cooooooool. He went on to become a crowd-pleasing performer, loving jazz because it ...was like breaking the rules,/like inventing new rules. Later, in New York, he began playing his own music. He called it Bebop: It was like he had taken a wrecking ball/and SMASHED IN/The House of Jazz,/till the walls came tumbling down…. Winter's lively writing pops with energy and begs to be read aloud. Qualls's acrylic, collage, and pencil illustrations swing across the large pages with unique, jazzy rhythms, varying type sizes and colors, and playful perspectives, perfectly complementing the text. This is a book that has a message: …the very thing that had gotten him into trouble/so much–/being a clown, breaking all the rules–/had become the thing that made him great…. But most important, it is a delightful story that introduces readers to an influential and unique American musician.–Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* There have been many books about jazz for young readers, a peculiar topic because, as a rule, it's not a form of music that children have an affinity for, if they are familiar with it at all. But, together, Winter and Qualls make it work. That's because Winter recognizes that if he can get readers interested in a character--in this case, trumpet revolutionary Dizzy Gillespie--they will want to learn more about his music. And Qualls is able to translate the story (and the music) into shapes and colors that undulate and stream across the pages with a beat and bounce of their own. The story of "one real cool cat" begins with a South Carolina childhood full of blue notes. Poor, abused, and angry, young John Birks Gillespie has his life turned around after a teacher gives him a trumpet. In a two-page spread, a river of red--his anger in living color--bursts out of Gillespie's new horn as he blows "REALLY LOUD." An explanation of jazz follows, and it is simple enough for the audience: "You took a melody and played it all different ways . . . changed every phrase--it was crazy." That is followed up with a bit more illumination dear to kids' hearts: "If a melody was like a rule, jazz was like breaking the rules, like inventing new rules. Jazz was like getting into trouble." Tracing Gillespie's ascent in the New York jazz world of the early 1940s, the story catches the excitement of the city, meshing it with the trumpeter's crazy personality (which earned him the nickname Dizzy); meanwhile, the artwork zigs and zags in color combinations that evoke the nightclub scene--greens, tans, a bit of peach, all counterpointed with muted grays. An author's note fills out Dizzy's story and lauds him for a personal life that was as composed as his music was wild. Turn up the stereo: kids will want to hear his music for themselves. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books (October 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439507375
• ISBN-13: 978-0439507370
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 10.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #308,759 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #69 in Books > Children's Books > Biographies > Musical

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bebop jazz and musical colors, May 6, 2009

By 

Judy K. Polhemus "Book Collector" (Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dizzy (Hardcover)

I have read this book and studied the illustrations several times now and still have not made up my mind about "Dizzy." Why so difficult? You see, that's the problem--I don't know. Let me walk you through the story.

I love the colors: pinks, chocolates, purples, grays, blacks, pale turquoise, and burgundy. The end pages are chocolate--symbolic of the color of Dizzy Gillespie's skin, then following the new trend in children's books--beginning the illustrations before even reaching the title page. There are two angels blowing their trumpets, announcing the delivery of a new baby--little John Birks Gillespie to a man in overalls and a woman in an orange dress walking down a country road in South Carolina.

"This is the story of one real COOL cat...born very poor and very tough." Displayed against rose pink walls are three boys, one downcast and two ugly-faced. The other boys beat up John Birks, until "one day he just couldn't take it anymore...and he whooped the living tar out of some big bully." Now John is ugly-faced, too. Those rose pink walls are smeary gray and rusty pink.

"He was always mad./ You see, his dad/ was always beating on HIM...." And a big-fisted, ugly-faced man stands over a puzzled little boy. The colors are grays and browns with one wine-colored rug because---the next two pages show a boy with a trumpet given to him by his music teacher. He blasts his anger through that horn and the sound is clotted-blood-red, pink, smeary white.

He plays and plays until the pages turn pale pink and show birds and butterflies (though they are gray). Even his shadow is gray, but the music, ah, the music has turned a smooth wine red. What he learns to play is JAZZ. "Jazz was like getting in trouble--it was FUN!"

Very pale yellows and somber ochres appear in the illustrations when he takes a train to Philly and gets a job in a jazz band. But the boy, now a man, uses shenanigans on stage for attention. "He'd fall off his chair...flail around willy-nilly" against a pale turquoise background. Finally, the musicians start to call him "Dizzy" because of his behavior.

In New York Dizzy finds himself, "soaking it in, the rumble and the roar/of the A train and the brass and the saxes and the drums/ of the jazz clubs." Lavenders, purply-reds, lilacs, grays find their way in the illustrations. He starts puffing out his cheeks for attention. During breaks, up on the roof, he starts to teach other "hepcats...how to play 'dizzy.'" The grays and pinks and lilacs become sophisticated, as does the color of his music.

By the time his name is on the billboards his music is so smooth out of his trumpet like the color of fine aged red wine, but this music is BEBOP, "going ziddly dee-boo-dah-boo/ hiddly on his horn...."

The last image of Dizzy shows him playing his Bebop in Jazz Heaven with the angel Gabriel against pale yellows and ochres. Dizzy wears an angel's crown with a white circular halo. An Author's Note concludes the book by providing biographical and musical notes about the man called Dizzy Gillespie, followed by two chocolate pages. The back cover displays one word--Bebop designed against all the loveliest colors of the book.

This book is an introduction to one of the great jazz musicians. Despite my aversion toward the "ugly" faces, they did have a role in creating the Dizzy we know and love. I'm thinking I like this book very much. But the proof is in the pudding. Will children like it? I'm also thinking I will pair the book with a recording by Dizzy Gillespie--maybe "Night in Tunisia" in a two-for-one lesson. Dizzy and Bebop--an introduction to great jazz music. Yep, I'm thinking this is a very good book.

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars learn about the life of Dizzy Gillespie, February 22, 2007

By 

Karyn W "blckwidow8" (Kansas City, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Dizzy (Hardcover)

I'd recommend this book to children aged 7-10, especially a child interested in music or to those looking for a book to celebrate African Americans. Be aware of the child abuse aspect, but learning about the interesting life of Dizzy Gillespie is fun with the colorful llustrations and text of this book. You will definitely find out more about this influential musician with this book.

5 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars must we curse, February 27, 2007

By 

Melissa Sack (georgia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dizzy (Hardcover)

This is a picture book biography of Dizzy Gillespie. We learn that he is beaten by his father while growing up. At school he takes an interest in music and let's his anger flow through the trumpet he is learning to play. He goes on to make a name for him self. He makes his own style of music and the people love it!


At one point in the text a bunch of symbols were written and it looked like the author was wanting to write a curse word in the book but used the symbols as well. I really didn't like that at all in a picture book for young readers.

I really would look else where for a good bio on Dizzy.