Get Your Hands On Jazz Age Josephine Designed And Illustrated By Jonah Winter Presented In Brochure

interesting look at the life of Josephine Baker, I enjoyed the story and illustrations, but I found the text to be somewhat clunky, It sometimes has a lyrical feel and other times seems forced, Her story was unfamiliar and I look forward to checking out other stories about Josephine, wonderful artist biography for a jazz age unit and history enhancing reading for individual/personal reading, The writing is fun to follow and reads like a blues song for me!
Words and images dance off the page in this frenetic book that tells the many obstacles Josephine Baker overcame to become a world famous dancer.


The illustrations and poetry are powerful, but I wish I could see this done as an animated short so I could really hear the music and see the dancing.

Gorgeous, fluid and colorful illustrations inspired by the style of Raoul Dufy, Story of young Josephine Bakers life told in calligraphic images and rhymed verse with a blues cadence in the early part of her life and jazzy rhythms when she became a star in Paris.
The story cuts off at the time of her youthful fame I would have liked to see her later work in the French Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement.
A note at the end mentioned that she adoptedtwelve!!! children from around the world and called The Rainbow Tribe, Twice as many kids as Angelina Jolie had amp adopted, Wouldnt that have been fun to see in illustrations Maybe this book needs a sequel, . . Wonderful illustrations and a fascinating subject make up for the awkwardness of the text, Written in verse, this picture book biography does not work well as a read aloud, but does offer a plethora of information on dancer Josephine Baker's life from her impoverished childhood to her fame in France and all of the racism she faced in between.
After watching "Midnight in Paris" a few times since this summer, I am now kind of an expert on's Paris, Kidding. BUT my interest in that era is piqued extra high after the movie and I was extra curious to see how a picture book would handle Miss Josephine Baker.
The colors, and rhythm and movement were just right, Fun and interesting book about a fun and intersting lady, Now I'm ready to read a grownup biography about her, This was a great book, We talked about the repeating lines and how they had small differences, Then we watched YouTube videos of Josephine doing the Charleston, singing in English and French, Really lovely read. Picture book about Josephine Baker,

Black History Month Read This is another children's biography by Jonah Winter On the fence about the way the lyrical poem flowed, I liked the illustrations on the cover and pages,andinterestingly enough, this cover is similar to Patricia Hruby Powell's cover but the other pages were a little too messy! This is not a knock to illustrator, Marjorie Priceman as she is atime Caldecott Medal Honoree and I can't draw stick figures!

This biography was just ok for me plus last year I read Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell and I really liked that one a lot.
I have mixed feelings about this book, There were some pages the flowed to me and then some that really didnt, I felt myself getting drawn into the story and then completely disinterested a few pages later, The authors note was interesting, especially learning that she adopted twelve kids from around the world as another reviewer wrote, I would have loved an illustration that included her “Rainbow Tribe”
My judgment: a decent childrens biography but definitely not my favorite.
I absolutely loved the artwork in this bookvibrant colors, perfect jazzy font, swirls of motion, It's an important and informative biography, Josephine Baker was committed to racial integration and equality during a pivotal time in history, I read this with my daughter who is seven and a pretty good reader, It is told in verse which made it a little hard for her to understand,
It is about Josephine Baker who was a dancer in the early's I think the's in Paris,
It did get her interested in Josephine Baker so we youtubed some videos of her performances,
She makes really strange faces in the videos which was alluded to in the book, So, I am guessing that was her signature,
Until we watched her performances a few things in the book really didn't make much sense,
One other thing I think is important to note is that there is a lot of stuff in the book about Josephine's struggles as a black performer.
Of course these struggles are important but trying to explain what blackface is and why it is bad to a seven year old wasn't something I was prepared for before cracking the spine of this book.

My general thoughts for other readers:
This book may be challenging for children to understand because of the writing style,
There may be content in the book that you will need to discuss with your children regarding the treatment of blacks in's USA.

If you are a parent I would read it ahead of time first so you can talk about these deep topics appropriately,
Also, this makes made more sense to my daughter after we watched videos of some of Jospehine's performances and I suggest you do that before reading so book makes more sense and feels more relevant to your child.
The first lines were straight blues even I was able to read them well, But when it got jazzy or whatever, it lost me, But that's on me. I am confident that this would be wonderful with the right narratorreader,

But I'm reading a string of picturebook biographies and they seem to getting aimed younger and younger, I find it so dissatisfying to learn so little, . . even the author's notes and back matter aren't as helpful as I'd like, Baker sounds like an amazing woman and I'd like to have read more about her, All about how Josephine Baker became famous with her lighthearted dancing in spite of the racial hurdles she had to leap,
A difficult rhythm to read out loud, and the font coupled with the amount if words on each page makes this not my choice for a class story.
I'm also wary of inspiring a student to study more, considering the risque nature of Ms, Baker's french act. This is an excellent children's biography of Josephine Baker, Because it is a book for children, young children, the story ends with her success in Paris, and does not deal with her work in WWII.
I mean, it's called Jazz Age for a reason, And, while the bananna skirt does make an appearance, there are no naughty bits,

What the book does extremely well, is illustrate the racism that Josephine faced as well as her determination to succeed, What is really wonderful is the use of language you can see Etta James, say, singing this book, Bohdohdohdeeoh! Bohdohdohdeeoh!



Okay, now sing those words,



And while you are at it make them sound like some musical instrument, This is called sitelinkscatsinging made popular in the Jazz Age and a form that Jonah Winter doodles across the pages of his terrific picture book biography, Jazz Age Josephine.
I made the mistake or maybe not a mistake of not reading this book beforehand and when I tried to sputter through the zeebuhdopzows and bohdohdohdeeoh it did NOT sound like any musical instrument you'd find in any band.
The kindergartners laughed so hard three grabbed their knees and rolled backwards like rolypoly eggs, And things got really interesting when we tried to do the Charleston dance, Let me tell you, I am NO Josephine, Josephine Baker to be exact,



African American Josephine Baker was singing the blues in St, Louis during thes. She lived in a house with no heat, little food, and rats anibblin' at her feet, As a teenager she snuck into the dance tent and made people laugh with her funny faces and terrific dancing where she made some money entertaining people.
 One night in St. Louis, some white people burned down the homes of many black people and Josephine decided it was time to leave, She went to New York City where she got a job on the stage, She was in the chorus and played the sitelinkMinstrel, While audiences loved her, she was disgusted with the degradation of her race in the Minstrel role, She left for France where she found different stage roles and became famous,



The writing style combines riffs and rhythms to reflect jazz songs, If you are wondering what is a riff, like I was, it is a sentence that is repeated usually at the same part and in the same pitch.
 
The first part of the book trumpets rhyming couplets and riffs, People, listen to my story, 'bout a girl named Josephine, / People, listen to this story, 'bout a poor girl name of Josephine, / She was the saddest little sweetheart this side of New Orleans, while the second part of the book shimmy and shakes the riffs with scatsentences such as, Boodleam Boodleam Boodleam SHAKE! Boodleam Boodleam Boodleam SHAKE! When Josephine goes to Paris, not only does the tone of writing change as it picks up a new beat to reflect the excitement of the stage, but the illustrator signals a change in the story direction by forcing the reader to tip the page up and down and illustrating Josephine at the Eiffel Tower.
The setting now only shows Josephine in or besides the Paris theater house,




sitelink
Can you tell the students favorite part of the book That's right, . . the last page where Josephine is sticking out her tongue, Josephine is funny. Not only does she stick out her tongue, she crosses her eyes and bugs them out making audiences laugh, The author's note on the last page says that Josephine was so good at clowning in the show that she got a job on the New York stage at the age of.
 Kindergartners are not going to understand the complexity of this story but they do get the humor and enjoy the repetitive language patterns, Although  one boy clearly understood when the black folks homes were being destroyed by white people because he shouted "meanies!"  The kids also liked it when we danced the Charleston

and they liked singing, Boodleam Boodleam Boodleam SHAKE! 



Priceman's use of ink pen and gouache illustrations move Josephine across the pages like a gymnast on a springboard.
Josephine is energetic, fun, and flexible with the flapper costumes and hairstyles so reflective of the roarings, Priceman adds some tidbits to the story such as the illustration of Josephine in her most famous banana peel skirt costume, The colorful Josephine also had a cheetah as a pet and would bring it on stage,  If you want students to hear some Jazz music, listen to sitelinkLouis Armstrong's Heebee Jeebies the second audio clip which made scatsinging famous,  Make sure you read this book out loud or sing it,



Good luck!

Duhduhntduhnt!



Reading Level,