Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow: A Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix [Hardcover]

Gary Golio (Author), Javaka Steptoe (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 4, 2010 | Age Range: 6 - 9 years | Lexile Measure: 900L (What's this?)

Jimi Hendrix was many things: a superstar, a rebel, a hero, an innovator. But first, he was a boy named Jimmy who loved to draw and paint and listen to records. A boy who played air guitar with a broomstick and longed for a real guitar of his own. A boy who asked himself a question: Could someone paint pictures with sound?
     This a story of a talented child who learns to see, hear, and interpret the world around him in his own unique way. It is also a story of a determined kid with a vision, who worked hard to become a devoted and masterful artist. Jimi Hendrix--a groundbreaking performer whose music shook the very foundations of rock 'n' roll.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 4-8–Before he was famous, little Jimmy Hendrix tuned into a world colored with the sounds of the city outside the Seattle boarding house where he lived with his father. As a boy he strove to reproduce those sounds on his one-string ukulele, and eventually on a secondhand guitar. Golio's lyrical text sings with delicious description, and Steptoe's wildly colored mixed-media illustrations show the hues of the boy's imagination, with Hendrix always standing out from his surroundings. The story itself focuses on the musician's rise to fame, with a supplementary note and a bibliography providing more detailed background information. His tragic death is dealt with in a separate author's note, accompanied by a list of resources about substance abuse. A fascinating "Illustrator's Note" illuminates the process behind the intriguing artwork and underscores the book's theme of exploring the creative process. This book is likely to fascinate older children and reluctant readers who might be familiar with Hendrix's music, and could easily be tied into art and music curricula.Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD
© Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

Although Jimi Hendrix’s music typically sits in the wheelhouse of teenagers discovering their countercultural streak, this picture book deigns to introduce the revolutionary musician to younger readers. By no means a straight bio, it describes his formative early life with lines like “A truck engine backfired, pounding like a bass drum, as a neighbor’s rake played snare against the sidewalk. . . . The sounds of life were calling out, and Jimmy Hendrix wanted to answer them.” It is, however, a convincing portrait of a boy who was electrified by music and heard the world very differently from anyone else; his single-minded drive to “paint with sound” in his own fashion will inspire young artists of all stripes. Steptoe’s chaotic, textured artwork screeches in feedback wails on the page, filled with impressions in lieu of representations. Hendrix’s struggle with drugs is addressed in an afterword, but as pure virtuoso, guitar heroes don’t get any bigger, and readers with hands itching for frets will be entranced. Grades 3-5. --Ian Chipman

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 6 - 9 years
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Clarion Books; None edition (October 4, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618852794
• ISBN-13: 978-0618852796
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 10.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #466,663 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #95 in Books > Children's Books > Biographies > Performing Arts

More About the Author

Like Jimi Hendrix (who was probably from Neptune), Gary Golio came to Earth many years ago disguised as a baby human. Born with more hair than he has now, Gary had unusual powers (like the ability to capture spiders with his bare hands), and began searching for his mission in life at an early age. As a boy, he spent a lot of time imitating his favorite comic book superheroes (Batman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Dr. Strange) before realizing that he was meant to be an artist. He's the author of the New York Times bestseller "JIMI: Sounds Like A Rainbow" (Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), "When Bob Met Woody - The Story of the Young Bob Dylan" (Little, Brown), and the brand new "Spirit Seeker: John Coltrane's Musical Journey" (Clarion - October '12).

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent picture book biography of a rock legend October 25, 2010

By M. Tanenbaum VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

At first glance, Jimi Hendrix, who tragically died at age 27 from a combination of prescription drugs and alcohol, may seem like an unlikely subject for a picture book. But Golio, an artist and musician himself as well as an author, manages to bring to life Jimi as a young boy and his unique way of looking at the world. What we might think of as ordinary sounds took on extraordinary colors to this musically gifted young boy. "A child was laughing, squealing like a clarinet on one of Dad's big band records," writes Golio. Music of all kinds set off "fireworks in his mind," and he begs for a guitar of his own. With his guitar, he could make a "rainbow of sounds," and with these visual analogies, Golio explains how Hendrix taught his guitar to make unconventional sounds, using it "as an artist uses paint."

Golio's text is set off by extraordinary collage illustrations by Javaka Steptoe which evoke the psychedelic colors and shapes of the 1960's. The illustrations with their wild colors (i.e. Hendrix painted completely in shades of purple and blue) and varied textures suggest the rainbow of sounds produced by Hendrix' guitar.

Jimi has already received starred reviews in Kirkus and School Library Journal and would be a great purchase for libraries as well as parents who would like to share one of rock's legends with their children.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars a ground-breaking work November 9, 2010

By michael a mccoy

Format:Hardcover

This could prove to be a ground-breaking work. Golio uses words like electric current, flashing them at the reader in a story of sound and color, telling the story of a young Jimi Hendrix and his dream of creating any and every sensation - with a guitar.
Steptoe's illustrations lie somewhere between sculpture and painting, connecting - in my mind at least - Rauschenberg and Ezra Jack Keats, but emerging totally original and perfectly fitted with the text.
This could be the book that allows authors and illustrators of books for younger readers to tackle subjects like 60s and 70s rock stars, Beat authors, and 'hands-off' subjects ranging from Arthur Rimbaud to Kurt Cobain. Golio's book reminds us that all were young, and despite - or because of - troubled lives and experiences, they managed to create works of art of honesty and original brilliance, transforming our own lives in the process.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Bold and imaginative December 7, 2010

By Lisa Barker

Format:Hardcover

Bold and imaginative illustrations match the biography of young Jimmy and bring life to the words on the page, making it easy to grasp how Jimmy felt and what that music inside his head sounded like. Golio and Steptoe successfully capture the essence of the fever this young musician felt and compel young readers to hear their own music, encouraging them to paint with brush and musical instrument. After a vivid story, the author provides further biography and deal straight on with the fact that Hendrix experimented with drugs. Sources are provided for children to help them avoid drug usage. - Biblio Reads Children's Book Review