Customer Reviews

Ellington Was Not a Street

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You know what doesn't get enough respect in this world? Author's Notes. As you read through the various picture books available to the public today, you forget how important Author's Notes are sometimes. You take them for granted until one day, out of the blue, you read a fabulous picture book like, "ellington was not a street", and find yourself scrambling frantically for something ANYTHING that reveals who the author is and what her intent was. After some readings and re-readings, I finally discovered a little background to this story hidden away in the hardback copy's bookflap. I'll share this information with you since, aside from its apparent destestation of clarification, "ellington was not a street" is a beautiful work of picture book art that deserves to be culled through by kids and scolars alike for years to come.

Poet and author Ntozake Shange drew up in the company of some of the greatest black heroes of America. Can you imagine what it must be like to know that as a toddler you slept on the couch while Paul Robeson and W.E.B. Dubois discussed the world? Or to remember the presence of people like Dizzy Gillespie and the Clovers in your home? With "ellington was not a street" you can. In Kadir Nelson's sumptuous images the viewer accompanies a small girl in a beautiful blue dress. The girl, supposedly Shange herself when young, inserts herself into almost each and every picture in this book. One moment she's greeting Ray Barretto at the door and in another she's pleased as punch to be attending a fancy soiree her parents are hosting. The book's text is a poem originally written by Shange in 1983. Entitled, "Mood Indigo", it starts off with a simple, "it hasnt always been this way/ ellington was not a street". A modern day Ellington Street stares us in the face and from it we're drawn back in time to an era when the great men of the Harlem Rennaisance mingled with a younger up-and-coming generation. As the book concludes with a final, "it hasn't always been this way...", we look into the kind and smiling face of the man of the title himself. A single baton rests between his hands.

The poem is, of course, excellent. It simply states that you cannot assume that the world we live in today was always as it was. It was forged by the likes of Nkrumah and Virgil Akins. It was created with the aid of strong men and women. So yes, bravo poem. But I don't mind saying that I think the real genius here is Kadir Nelson. Nelson has a artistic grasp of perspective and angle that just kills you. The two parts of the book that look at modern Ellington Street show, in two sections, the same woman attempting to cross its street. The figure of the small girl watching the men and women around her is a perfect way to keep kids interested in the story. They identify with the girl. She's so adorable and knowing, all at once, that it would be difficult for the adults reading this book not to identify with her as well. The famous figures in this story are represented beautifully, their features perfectly attenuated according to the situation. There is no doubt in my mind that every single face in this book (and there are, literally, a ton) is based on a real person. Most impressive is the final shot where everyone who has appeared in the book poses together for the viewer. The picture looks like a living breathing photograph of the greats. Whether people are smiling demurely or mugging shamelessly, it's a heckuva fabulous image.

For those readers who need to brush up on their Nkrumah or Sonny Til history, a helpful biographical section appears at the back of the book with pictures of the featured men. This was incredibly helpful to me, though I'm proud to say that I knew the history of at least four of the nine displayed. Still, where's the Author's Note that explains why the author's father was so popular with these famous fellows? Why is there an image of Shange, older, clutching an Ellington record at the beginning of the book? What were these people talking about? The book is so good, but it leaves so much left unsaid. It's the same objection I had with Tony Kushner's fabulous, "Brundibar", as well. The book assumes its readers don't need additional information. The book is wrong. Just the same, don't pass it by. Grab this puppy and give your children a good reading. They may not get it at first, but this is one of those picture books that kids will appreciate for its beauty and resonance. It's a lovely display of some true American heroes.

I have been a fan of Ntozake Shange since seeing the play "For colored girls..." as a teen. Her writing and passion has always been vibrant and found its way to the heart of you. This book is a beautiful reflection of what & who shaped her as a child. She knew some of the fore most revered African-American minds and talents when as a child as friends "play uncles." They influenced her and now she uses her history and past to mold and shape young readers. This book is a tribute to their memories as well as tool to teach the younger generation about the past. I am greatful to her for this book and all her other books. Every library should have this book for their children. We have read this to our daughters and will most assuredly read it to our son. I can't say anymore regarding Kadir Nelson except "Masterful." He has the portraiture down to a science. W.E.B. DuBois leaps off the page.

I think Ellington Was Not a Street should have won the Caldecott because it had very realistc and large drawings. The drawings also helped tell the story because there were very few words on the page. I would reccomend this book for ages 9 to 19.

This book is so beautiful! The poem and illustrations are a perfect fit, recreating Harlem during a rich period in time. It's about the past, but reminds us of what the present and future could be. Biographies of the people mentioned in the poem bring the story to life even more. This is the sort of book I'd buy for a child, but end up keeping for myself.

You know this is a memorable book right away.

On the flyleaf, young Ntozake Shange (born Paulette Williams in Trenton, New Jersey on October 18, 1948) sits on a grand piano, clutching precious black vinyl, while overhead hangs a detail of a picture from the harlem Renaissance.

You turn to the first page of text, and, against robin's egg blue, inside a darker blue background, Shange begins her story: "It hasn't always been this way. ellington was not a street." On the facing page of this oversized book is a picture so beautiful you could frame it, a street scene of umbrella'd people walking under a street sign signifying "ELLINGTON ST," with fog-locked but luminous buildings seen in quarter-profile.

She continues:

robeson no mere memory
dubois walked up my father's stairs...
...dizzy's hair was not always grey

Kadir Nelson's powerful, evocative images accompanying the prose poem. Big Paul Robeson, actor, singer, writer, activist, exile, towers over young Shange, in an entryway filled with color and art and taste. (Shange, indeed, came from an upper middle class background; her father a military surgeon and her mother an educator and psychiatric social worker.)

The elderly Dubois, cane in hand, walks with dignity in the handclasp of her welcoming father, approaching a stately grandfather's clock and young Shange, clutching her doll.

Percussionist Ray Baretto and trumpet player Diizy Gillespie greet her on the porch, autumn leaves echoing the autumnal colors of the brick and wood house, while Dizzy holds one finger to his lips and fills his cheeks, all to the curious delight of the little girl.

One by one they gather, these legends re-visited through magical grace of Shange and the mastery of Kadir Nelson. It's a time when animated conversation ("politics as necessary as collards/music even in our dreams") belies the current "DON'T WALK" sign now commanding the street. "Our house was filled with all kinda folks..." (this is no elitist reminiscence) "our doors open like our daddy's arms held us safe and loved" until finally all the guests assemble in a full family portrait: Robeson, Diz, Ellington, the doo-wop group "The Clovers," Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, former Presient and Prime Minister of Ghana, the doo-wop singer Earlington "Sonny Til" Tilghman, as well as the "Clovers" ("Love Potion No. 9"), and others, looking straight out at us, daring us, to paraphrase writer Stephen Leacock, to close fill the gap between what we aspire to and what we achieve.

*****
The book references the most famous visitors with capsule biographies on a penultimate two-page spread, and the last page, the color of indigo, repeats the entire text in poetry form. As for the "truth" of the book...

This book is art without announcing itself as art. Its feelings are true and understandable by anyone with an open heart, no matter what the background. Does it matter whether all these people came one by one, let alone gathered together one momentous day at her father's house? I feel like I've come to know Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, James Joyce, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk. We say, after all that someone's work "speaks" to us, though we've never heard them. For the record... We know (from a 1986 interview with Brenda Lyons) that visitors to young Ntozake Shange's house included, among others, Dizzy Gillespie, Walter White (Executive Secretary of the NAACP from 1931-1955), Paul Robeson, Miles Davis, Chuck Berry, and W. E. B. Du Bois. For the record...An exhilarating book, a work of uncompromising beauty.

This is one of the most beautifully illustrated picturebooks I've ever seen. Kadir Nelson is brilliant and supremely talented. It takes us into the narrator's home (the little girl on the cover) and gives us an intimate view of some of the most celebrated African-Americans in history. The text is scarce in a good way, and set off beautifully in boxes within the illustrations. Elegant and edifying.

Dear Reader, I thought Ellington Was Not a Street would win the Caldecott. I thought wrong. This book's illustrations can easly catch your attention.Illustrater Kadir Nelson makes the illustrations beautiful and colorful. Next time recommend this book!

Both Shange and Nelson are at their best in this beautifully illustrated walk through African American history. The illustrations are wonderful and the poetry is, in fact, poetry. Lovely.

What a beautiful book, both the very simple text (a poem that had
been previously published in an adult book) and the illustrations
which are quite possibly the best Nelson has done - which is saying
something because his work is always excellent.

Shange's world is not my world, but that little girl in the book
is right around the age of my granddaughter and the body language,
the look, the smile, the inquisitiveness, the daddy-love could be
my sweetie, and that is probably the most important reason why
I love this book.

I think I bought this book mostly for the illustrations (which are beautiful, see other reviews). What I have been surprised by is how much my son loves it. He is only two and a half, and started wanting me to read it to him when he was two. I don't know what it is that entrances him (the rhythm of the words or the rhythm of the images?) and what he focuses on has changed with time - but it is much loved by him, and I look forward to explaining more of it as he gets older and better able to understand the many levels of it.