This exuberant, high-flying kids' book is a toe-tapping, body-shaking, joyful book for kids and the grown-ups who read to them. It swings rifht from the start, coming straight on with verve and energy. Let me excerpt a little here so you can see (and hear, and feel) what I mean:
Grandpa TOOT-TOOTS,
Granny sings scat.
BItty boppin'Baby goes
RAT-TAT-TAT!
Mama sings high,
Daddy sings low.
Snazzy-jazzy Baby says "Go, Man, Go!"
THere's more dancing and singing and bebopping, and then, just like song returning to its chorus, there's a return (only slightly modified) to some of the earlier words and actions:
Momma swings high.
Daddy swings low.
Swingin'=singin' Baby says "Go, Man, GO!"
Wow--this is easy, fun reading, all natural and rhythmic and nothing forced in meter or rhyme. It's a lot like a jazz piece--SOme central ideas (The Baby as the central person, dancing, singing), with some riffs that broaden and extend those themes (e.g., the extended family as subtext, a brief exploration of some jazz instruments and their sounds, the baby getting drowsy and going to sleep...)
This sort of spontaneity extends to the gouache illustrations by award-winning illustrator R. Gregory Christie. It may take several readings for one to fully appreciate his casual style and how well it fits the rhythm and feeling of the book. The emphasis is on motion and tempo, on the dancer/singer and his or her ability to fill up space with movement and sound. Christie treats us to views of the elongated dancers' limbs, bright, sometimes surprising colors, and even long shots of buildings swaying to the beat. In a sequence that recalls "Fantasisa, the notes dance off a musical cleff, grow daces, and dance around "Baby."
I've found that too many kids' "jazz" books really focus on the blues--usually the rural blues, seen through an awkward sentimentalism--or solely on dance. Sometimes they confuse eras, portraying any jazz singer as a combination of Bessie Smith, post-WWII hep cats, and 1950's beats.
Jazz Baby does mention such non-jazz genres as the blues and hip-hop, and (of course) focuses more concretely on dance than on the music, yet the spirit of jazz pervades the entire book. The prose and pictures coalesce into a stylistic/emotional sister to jazz music. It's a fine achievement, that conveys all this without effort or strain. Most of all, it's just a lot of fun!
"Daddy sings blues.
Mama sings sweet.
While that snoozy-woozy baby... lllsleeps deep, deep, deep.
OH YEAH!"
