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Romance your date with a Monk-inspired duet, or have a private boogie-woogie party in honor of your singledom. This Valentine’s Day The Oxford Comment presents a crash course on the music that speaks all kinds of love, from one of the men that knows it best.

Want more of The Oxford Comment? Subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes!
You can also look back at past episodes on the archive page.

Featured in this episode:

Kevin Whitehead is long-time jazz critic for National Public Radio’s Fresh Air and has written about jazz for many publications, including the Chicago Sun-Times, Down Beat, and the Village Voice. His latest book is Why Jazz?: A Concise Guide.

(Psssst! Wanna hear more blues? Then check out The Ben Daniels Band.)

‘What is your soundtrack?’ Miriam Halahmy wrote on Monday. My soundtrack is often the noise of bombs whining down, of artillery bombardment, of planes strafing civilians, things I’ve never heard, but that my mother – she told me once – relived when I was in utero, which maybe explains why all through my childhood I was terrified when I heard a siren. I mean the air-raid type sirens which were in use in the ‘50s. There was one that used to go off from Kendal quarry every day and I never got used to it. Maybe it was an air-raid siren working out its time. But the bells that ring out over the ruined city of Berlin in Saving Rafael – German churchbells, not the severe mathematical patterns we hear in this country, but a cluster of notes rung together in harmony – come from the Christmas record that was always played in my childhood home. I can hear them in my mind now.

Music affects me in two ways when I’m writing. Firstly, there’s the music that actually occurs in the novel – a lot of Django Reinhart and Louis Armstrong in Last Train from Kummersdorf and there’s a particular track on my Charlie Parker box set from the ‘40s – ‘Dizzy Boogie’ – which has really lit up the jazz I write about in the novel I’m working on at present. But I will say no more about work in progress.. When I was writing Saving Rafael, I had a cd called ‘Berlin by Night’ which contained popular music from Germany in the Nazi period. Not, I hasten to add, Nazi songs, but songs ranging from ‘Lili Marleen’ to disguised jazz, given a German title and lyric to make it more acceptable to the authorities. It has ‘Es geht Alles Vorüber’, the smash hit of the end of the war, the one that people kept listening to. Its message: ‘Everything passes, everything goes by, and every December is followed by May’ annoyed Propaganda Minister Goebbels – not martial enough – but that made no difference. My mother associated it, bitterly, with the letter she got telling her her first love had been killed in action – but she did have her Maytime after all, when she met my British father.

I listened to that cd over and over again, and composed the ‘theme lyric’ for the novel, in slight imitation of a terribly shlocky number that had me frankly laughing my head off. Jenny, in the novel, knew it was trash, but because it was playing the first time she realised Raf was interested in her, it got terribly important to her.

And yet – the scene where my young hero reaches across the table and starts playing with Jenny’s fingers comes, not from any of those contemporaneous songs, but from Tchaikowsky’s Violin Concerto (in D Major, I believe). I’d been wondering how to write that scene just before I was taken abruptly into hospital to have a tumour taken out of my spine. The second night after my surgery, I had a dreadful moment when I woke up and thought: ‘Somebody’s in pain,’ and then realised it was me – just as authors describe in many novels, and I always thought they’d made it up! But the thing that made me cry was that I thought I’d lost my novel.

I got some more opiates from the nurses, pulled myself together – they were dealing with an emergency in the room and the last thing they needed was an author agonising – and then the next morning I was listening to the Tchaikowsky on my personal stereo and suddenly I was in the Café Kranzler again. I’d found the novel! Such a relief, because honestly, it was an awful moment, and I realised how important a companion the novel I’m working on is to me.

Tchaikowsky wrote the concerto as a love-letter to a young violinist – who didn’t reciprocate his affection – but it is the most passionate, flirtatious, wonderful bit, and the part of the slow movement I was listening to was just like someone playing with their loved one’s fingers. I had something to write on, so I reached out – I had to lie flat in bed – and scrawled it down.

There’s a ja

Reviewed by Dorit Sasson

A Wonderful Jazzy Tale

The Little Piano Girl poignantly describes Mary Lou Williams’ childhood and her love for jazz. She plays her way through the hardships she encounters as a poor African American surviving in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood.

Her family can’t take their organ from their Atlantic home, so Mary beats tunes on the tabletop. Over time, she acquires a reputation as the “little piano girl” and plays “sassy sounds” for families, schoolmates and passersby. News of her jazzy music spreads throughout the entire neighborhood. Even without a piano or money, she taps on the table and borrows her mother’s shoes. She saves the money people give her so she can buy a pair a shoes.

This picture book vividly describes the early years of this great jazz legend whose contribution to jazz has been profound. Beautifully illustrated, this lively and fast-paced story will capture the interest and imagination of children around the world.

Title: The Little Piano Girl
Authors: Ann Ingalls, Maryann McDonald
Illustrator: Giselle Potter
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 32 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children; 13 edition (January 18, 2010)
ISBN-10: 0618959742
ISBN-13: 978-0618959747

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Dorit Sasson is a freelance writer, speaker, and the Teachers’ Diversity Coach. Visit her website at www.doritsasson.

The sketch, below:

The above is a case where anything can become a story, I guess. It’s just a quickly done cartoon version of my yesterday evening. And, yes, I was wearing hot pink shorts. They are too comfortable to be worried about how they look. And I have no idea how to draw a hazy horizon, but I tried to capture the moment.

It’s time for Spring Strings Music Weekend! This Friday, May 7 through Monday, May 11, Please Touch Museum is celebrating all things strings. We will be taking a special look and listen to instruments that use strings to make their sound-- like the violin and the guitar!


Come check out the special ballet performances by the Rock School on Saturday, May 8, as they dance to music made by string instruments, or listen to the Run of the Mill String Band perform on Sunday, May 9. This special music weekend will engage children (and adults!) of all ages by providing unique learning opportunities. We will learn the importance of being gentle with musical instruments, hone our fine motor skills while strumming the auto-harp, and practice new vocabulary, such as vibrato and forte. Plus, in celebration of Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 9, all moms will receive FREE admission!

Music is the perfect tool for independent and cooperative play, so come join us for Spring Strings! For a detailed schedule, please visit our website here!

It was a fun-filled family-friendly President's Day Weekend here at Please Touch Museum!

Please Touch Museum is a first museum experience for many of our visitors. The children may have seen their first theater show, watched their first live music performance, celebrated an author’s birthday for the first time or experienced a diverse set of art materials for the first time during this past weekend.

On Saturday and Sunday, Louie Miranda and Friends jazzed it up in the Please Touch Playhouse Theater with the help of 8 year old percussionist, Antoine. Kids not only had a chance to listen and dance to music, but could also join Louie’s Band, fueling future creativity. Louie always encourages parent participation in his shows making the shows family oriented, and memorable.

In addition, many visitors could be seen dancing along to the Northeastern University Concert Band with over 40 college musicians in Hamilton Hall. College students took the time before their performance to connect with visitors and show them how each instrument worked.

On President's Day, we celebrated author Norman Bridwell's Birthday, creator of the Clifford books. The Clifford series features a young girl named Emily Elizabeth and Clifford the Big Red Dog. Kids were ecstatic to meet their favorite big red dog in person at the museum. Character appearances gave children the chance to see the Clifford books come to life.

Young visitors also had the chance to connect literacy with art in the Program Room with Kid’s Best Friend: Drawing with Silky Sticks activity. We encouraged kids to tell us about their best friends, and illustrate them with our fun silky sticks. A silky stick is a versatile material that can be turned up like a glue stick; it is great because it can be used as a crayon when drawing on paper, an oil pastel when rubbed with your fingers, or a watercolor when painted on with some water. It all depends on how our visitors chose to mix the colors. By describi

Here at Please Touch Museum, we make music in a lot of different ways. One fun way that we explore music is by putting together groups of instruments that are generally found together.

As you may know, February is "Junior Jazz" month at Please Touch Museum, so we will be having a "Jazz Café" in the Program Room made up of instruments that are typically found in jazz combos! There will be a little piano, a trumpet, a flute and, of course, lots of drums. Kids will have the opportunity to listen to some jazz music and play along, and even make up songs of their own! By doing this, they'll learn about the context surrounding different types of music, as well as hearing the differences between musical styles. Kids also be learning about how to produce different sounds and what different instruments look, feel and sound like-- all while having fun. It's the perfect example of how Please Touch Museum's mission of learning through play comes alive!

Besides exposure to different types of instruments and genres, music is important for early childhood education. Children learn by exploring the world around them, so music is a perfect introduction to math with emphasis on numbers and counting musical beats. Language and vocabulary skills are boosted as well when singing songs. In this particular music program, we will tie in geography and history by traveling around the world to explore music from other cultures. Making music is also one of the best ways to build our hand-eye coordination, self-expression, creativity, team work skills and foster self confidence and joy.

A great way that you can hold your own "jam session" at home after visiting the museum is by having a family band. You can use re-purposed objects like pots and pans and play along to different types of music, or just make up your own songs. Everyone can count off together and take turns singing verses, or you can all sing together-- however your band makes music, it's sure to be a harmonious experience for everyone!

On your next visit, be sure to check out all the different instruments and fun in the Program Room. Most Musical Playtimes take place Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays at 2 p.m., with the exception of special performance days. For details, check the "Today's Fun" signs on the gallery floor.

Alex Chechik only recently graduated from art school and he’s already doing work this sophisticated. Gorgeous!

He currently works in Toronto as a freelance illustrator and designer for animation and says his influences include Nicolas Marlet, Tadahiro Uesugi, and vintage children’s books.

As well, Alex tells me, “Music is a huge influence for me. It’s greatly inspiring, and helps you put more emotion into a piece. I love putting on a video of a great live performance and painting along to it – that’s where the jazz illustrations come from.

Jazz is incredibly influential, but I do enjoy a fair amount of rock, electronic stuff and definitely some good hip-hop as well.”

For proof, Alex laid down some phat beats on his terrific demo reel that really sets the tone!

Demo Reel from Alex Chechik on Vimeo.

Alex says, “Since July of this year I’ve been trying to get into the freelance thing, while slowly applying for work. Making contacts and marketing yourself is definitely the biggest challenge in the freelance route; it’s a skill I still have to learn much about. But I enjoy the studio environment and collaborative work, so I’d love to get a full-time gig in visual development or design for animation. That’s a goal and I’m just beginning to seek out that type of work more aggressively.”

To which I have to say, “Hello animation industry? Why haven’t you snapped this guy up?!”

Alex Chechik’s website and blog

Posted by Leif Peng on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | One comment
Tags: Alex Chechik, Animation, jazz, painting

Here's a little picture I did of Harvey Pekar, comic book writer,Jazz enthusiast and not curmudgeon to celebrate his 70th birthday. Jeff Newalt asked me and a slew of artists to draw,paint etc. the head of Mr. Pekar. This was a really fun little side project to do and I was honoured to be asked.

Mike Cina - Spirit Edit Jazz Mix

In this 4th installment of grain edit mixtapes, we caught up with design nut and all-around awesome guy Mike Cina. When Mike isn’t manning the helm at YouWorkForThem he’s digging through your grand pa’s record collection. Today we’re excited to present an exclusive jazz mix he created for grain edit readers.

Before we get to the mix, I had a chance to pick Mike’s brain on record collecting, typography and album cover art.

When did you start collecting records?
I started ‘collecting’ in high-school, 1986, but I started shopping for records when I was 7. My father used to take me out once a month or so to hit up some record stores. Like most kids, I wanted to be like him, so I would buy records but I was into disco and pop. He was into deep heavy rock (Electric Prunes, Blue Cheer, Black Sabbath) so whenever I would play my stuff, he would exit stage left.

In high school I started actually getting a collection together. I probably had 800 or so records back then. Anything from Acid House to Metal. In the mid 90’s I only was buying CD’s. Finally in the late 90’s I realized that CD’s were a waste and started upgrading all my CD’s to vinyl. Never regretted that move.

Can you tell us a little about the albums you selected for the mix and why you chose them?
I chose a wide range of music but the common thread are jazz musicians that had spiritual ties. In the 60’s and 70’s you had a lot of small independent labels (Saturn, Nimbus, Black Jazz, Strata East, Tribe, etc) that put out amazing work. Ideas were everywhere and people were exploring new territories. There were a lot of musicians also deep into religion and they made jazz music based off of their relationship with God. John Coltrane pretty much launched this movement, being an extremely spiritual person. I can’t quite explain it, but the music has a different feeling and sound. This mix takes a journey into what people now call “Spiritual Jazz.”

For some people Jazz can be hard to understand or appreciate, what is it that resonates with you?
The first time I “heard” jazz was when I was in college and a friend dropped Herbie Hancock “Headhunters” at my house one night. It really resonated with me, especially the track Chameleon! When the transition in the middle of the song happens you just get all warm and a light turned on in my brain. I was playing house music out at the time and they would sample jazz a lot, so I knew your basic jazz and soul hooks. The next lp I bought was Coltrane’s “Interstellar Space” and that did not resonate with me at all. After that was Dolphy’s “Out to Lunch” and that was a little better. I kept trying different ‘classics’ until I got to Coltrane’s”Love Supreme” and then things clicked a little more. I think the more you listen to jazz, your ear sharpens and you can hear more things. Doors start to open, you can start to hear emotions, personalities, ideas and conversations with the band members. Raw feelings. The best jazz to me is music that is caught up in a struggle of emotions.

Do you see any connections between typography and jazz?
If you look at anything from the constructivist workings, avant garde typography, down to the Reid Miles covers, or even Niklaus Troxler posters… you can see how words and jazz mix. There is a rhythm in how people speak and can relate to music as well. So if you take how people talk, you can express that visually with the letters. Or even capture the mood or emotion of the players, much like Reid Miles did. I don’t think he captured the music, but more the feeling and personalities of the players. There are a lot of new books coming out about album cover art, so I think that is a testimony that music does inspire design.

What are your thoughts on the downloadable music culture and its
effect on album cover design?
Where do you begin? The music industry does not care about making good music. When they changed from vinyl to tapes to CD’s, they fully knew it was not as dynamic but very portable. Ever since then, they have pushed a more disposable format. Nothing can replace the size, feel and emotion that you can get from a beautiful lp cover. To be honest, I don’t even care what most albums look like anymore if it is digital. They could have any image because I can’t see the cover unless I choose to look at it or add it in iTunes. With an album, you have to look at it. You have to put money and effort into making an LP. It is just the perfect size and shape to get enough detail and do a dynamic layout.

Every collector has that prized find. What record is that for you?
I have found some nice stuff. These are not the most rare but finding a white label of Skull Snaps, Tom Scott’s “Honeysuckle Breeze” was nice. My favorite stuff to find is private-press jazz and boogie. To answer your question, my prized lp is Oriental Jazz by Lloyd Miller. It is one of those lp’s that just resonates with me.

Do you have any other record digging stories you can share with us?
I have been in more than a couple odd situations where I felt like I could have been abducted extremely easily. The classic one was where we are in Ohio and are calling record stores. This guy answers and said he closed his shop but is willing to let us peek around for a bit of what stock he has. We drive up to the address and we are in a bad side of town. When we park I am thinking my car is going to get stolen. I see these guys walking down the street and tell my friend to watch out as he is opening the door and he practically hits these guys with my car door. They murmur something to him and we see this guy opening these big wooden panels on a shop. When we walk in, there are records all over the place and nothing is priced. We sort through it all and found some nice Blue Notes. When we are done, he says yeah your car is still there (he was watching it) want to see more records? So we say yep. We go around this bulletproof glass barrier into another room that looks like a bomb went off in it. Records were everywhere, we were walking on records to get to the main part of the room. We spent a good hour or two there, pulling some nice jazz and Soul. So when we are done, he says there are some lps in the basement. Well we go downstairs and the air is thicker than I have ever breathed. Damp as anything with a mold and mildew stench. My friend and I have our arm over our mouth so we can breathe and the owner doesn’t go down. It’s basically something straight out of Pulp Fiction and the word “gimp” comes in my head immediately.

So we are down there and there is one green bulb on and you can barely see. We said we had enough and he said well there is another basement down from here with more records. We reluctantly say okay and we go
down further and I can’t even breathe and my friend murmers lets get the hell out of here’ and he goes upstairs. I did see a audiofile Herbie Hancock “Maiden Voyage” so I run over and grab it and go upstairs. I was really thinking NOBODY would have found us if something happened, being probably 30 or more feet underground. The only reason I went down is because the owner was a really nice guy.

So he said he had yet another warehouse with some as well so we go there too and had crates and of crates of jazz. I was just spent so really didn’t look as sharp as I should have. It was just a great time but took up a half of a day. I think I got 70 something records there. Checking out closed warehouses full of lps are ALMOST always a treat.

Reid miles/ Blue Note is often mentioned when the subject of cover
art is brought up. What other jazz labels do you feel we’re/are
consistently producing solid cover art?
ECM is probably my favorite overall from front-to-back cover. I used to see them all the time for 50 cents and passed on them until I thought that I should just buy them all for the covers. Well, I started really getting into the releases that came out before 1980 and started collecting them. I have their first hundred-and-something releases (ECM1001-ECM1120) or something. Blue Note is essential, Strata-East, Tribe, Impulse is okay (their spine is the best ever though). Factory Records and 4AD is pretty amazing but not jazz.

……and now the Spirit Edit Mix!

Here’s the track listing:

1. Marion Brown - Bismillahi

2. John Coltrane - The Sun

3. Adele Sebastian - Desert Fairy Princess

4. The Clifford Jordan Quartet - John Coltrane

5. Lloyd Miller - Gol-E-Gandom

6. Pharoah Sanders - Love is Everywhere

7. Hino and Garper - Red Eye Special

8. Carlos Garnett - Mother of the Future

9. Doug Carn - God is One

10. Heikki Sarmanto - Duke and Trane

Many thanks to Mr. Cina for putting this mix together. Be sure to catch Mike at YouWorkFormThem and Twitter.

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Also worth checking: Mike the 2600 King Mix, Props Radio Designer Music, Afreeka Mix

Not signed up for the Grain Edit RSS Feed yet? Give it a try. Its free and yummy.

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©2009 Grain Edit

Weinstein, Muriel Harris. 2008. When Louis Armstrong Taught Me Scat. Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie.

Quick summary of this one...a girl listens (along with her mother) to Louis Armstrong on the radio and becomes interested in scat. That night in bed, she imagines having a private scat lesson (or should that be session?) with Satchmo himself. This scat session is all about bubble gum in all its gooey wonder.

This leads to some wonderfully rhythmic poetry (I'm only going to quote a bit of it. It goes on much longer than this.):

Rippety wrapper
Glittery new
Pinkety sweet
Stickety chew
Squash-itee
Stretch-itee
Gummity thick
Squooz-itee
Oooz-itee
Blowity quick!
Chew-itee
Chew-itee
Chew-itee
Chop
Crackity
Snappity
Poppity!
Pop!!!

I just loved that. Isn't it great??? There is much to love in this one. Then again, I love Louis Armstrong, so that may prejudice me a little. But I just really really enjoyed this one.

Last year, I simply fell in love with Jazz Baby. I loved, loved, loved the rhythm and the rhymes. It just worked really well. But one of the things I loved most about it were the illustrations. This book, When Louis Armstrong Taught Me Scat, is illustrated by the same man: the great and wonderful, R. Gregory Christie.

According to Amazon, this one doesn't release until Christmas Eve.

From the publisher:

When Louis Armstrong Taught Me Scat -- In a CRACKITY-SNAPPITY-POPPITY-POP bubblegum dream, a young girl learns to scat from the master himself, Louis Armstrong! Written in prose and scat with wild and wonderful illustrations by R. Gregory Christie, this joyful tribute is downright contagious. CHEW-ITEE CHEW-ITEE CHEW-ITEE CHOP, CRACKITY SNAPPITY POPPITY POP!

A former elementary school teacher, Muriel Harris Weinstein has taught children's poetry, prose, and playwriting at the United Nations School and the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts. She lives in Great Neck, New York. R. Gregory Christie is a three-time recipient of a Coretta Scott King Award in Illustration, and two of his books, Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth and Stars in Darkness, were named New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

grain edit is proud to announce for your viewing pleasure the second installment in our ongoing record gallery series.

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One of the first people I met when I moved to California was Chris Veltri. Chris aka “Cool Chris” owns the world renowned Groove Merchant record store which has become a haven for those looking for obscure jazz, soul, funk and latin records. Chris is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet and his knowledge of music is bordering on insane. I couldn’t begin to count the amount of amazing albums he has exposed me to.

On one of my trips to Chris’s house I had a chance to take a few photos of his personal record collection. I only had time to go through a small portion of his collection, so here are a few of the choice album covers.

*Note - sorry for the poor image quality on some of the photos. I was having an issue with my camera.

Also worth checking:

The Record Gallery part 1- Mike the 2600 King

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(t) Jazz/ Rock voicings for the contemporary keyboard player c1974
(b) Jazz Improvisation for keyboard players c1978

I picked up these two books over the weekend. They are part of an instructional jazz book series produced in the 1970s for Studio publications and recordings. I’m not sure who responsible for the cover design but, I like how he limited it to a few simple shapes and the type. Both books are written by Dan Haerle, but there are others in the series by Rufus Reid and Ramon Ricker.

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If you’re planning to attend the ALA (American Library Association) conference in Anaheim in June, I’d like to make the following plug for your consideration. As a member of the very first Odyssey committee, I’m especially excited to see this inaugural event. Hope you’ll join us!

This year’s Booklist Books for Youth program in Anaheim will be devoted to the new Odyssey Award, given for excellence in audiobook production. The award will be presented to Arnie Cardillo of Live Oak Media, for his production of Walter Dean Myers’ Jazz, and five honor productions will be recognized. Speakers include Arnie Cardillo, author-audiobook producer Bruce Coville, and celebrated audiobook reader Simon Vance. There will also be plenty of entertaining clips from the winners. The award, selected and administered by a joint committee representing ALSC and YALSA, is sponsored by Booklist. Join the celebration on Friday, June 26, 8-10 p.m.

What’s the poetry connection? You may recall that the winner is JAZZ, a book of poetry! I’ve blogged about Jazz before because I just love that book. You may remember that I wrote about this book previously when it received a Coretta Scott King Illustrator honor citation, was selected as one of the five poetry books nominated for the Cybils Award, and appeared on my very own list of the “Best Poetry for Children in 2006.” Now, the audio adaptation has won the very first Odyssey Award. Clearly, it is a terrific book! As I noted previously, it’s a vibrant picture book poetry collection that is a celebration of jazz music and history and a tribute to New Orleans. The language is vivid and participatory and the art is obviously prize winning—sprawling and expressive. It also includes a helpful “Introduction,” “Glossary of Jazz Terms,” and a “Jazz Time Line.” And the illustrations in Mardi Gras colors of green, golds, and purples just leap off the page, the perfect accompaniment to the lively language.

The audio production is an amazing creation that takes the book even further. It is beautifully narrated by two performers, by James "D-Train" Williams and Vaneese Thomas with the perfect juxtaposition of male and female voices. Their delivery alone is milk and honey, but Live Oak Media commissioned original jazz music as a backdrop for the poetry, too. Incredible! The music takes this lyrical and rousing poetry to a new level. As we wrote in the press release for the announcement, “Original music accompanies each poem's performance, resulting in a rhythmic representation of mood and tone. Separate tracks for the selections and lively inclusion of a glossary and timeline create a dynamic audiobook; part poetry, part nonfiction, and wholly authentic.”

Picture credit: http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/odysseyaward/odysseyawardcurrentwinner/odysseycurrentwinner.cfm

Did you see the announcement of the ALA awards for children’s and YA literature? Poetry was all over the place! I was fortunate enough to attend the announcement press conference as part of the first ever Odyssey Award committee for best audiobook of the year and I kept nudging my friend next to me, saying, “That’s poetry.” “That one’s poetry.” “That’s poetry, too.” It was so exciting. Top of the list? The NEWBERY award! Congratulations to Laura Amy Schlitz for Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village (Candlewick), a truly amazing work of history, poetry, drama, and detail. You may remember that our prescient Cybils poetry committee chose it for our short list of the best poetry of the year, too!

But wait, there was more!
One of the Printz honor books for YA literature is a powerful work of poetry, Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath by Stephanie Hemphill (Knopf, an imprint of Random House). Way to go, Stephanie! This book also is rich in history and biography, but offers poems echoing the style of Plath, about Plath herself. (It’s also on the Cybils short list of best poetry of the year!)

One of the Coretta Scott King author honor books is also a work of poetry: Twelve Rounds to Glory The Story of Muhammad Ali written by Charles R. Smith Jr., illustrated by Bryan Collier (Candlewick). More history, more biography, more poetry—this one is a shout-out read aloud with dynamic images in words and art.

Margarita Engle, author of The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano, illustrated by Sean Qualls (Holt) is the 2008 Pura Belpré Author Award recipient honoring Latino authors and illustrators whose work best portrays, affirms and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in children's books. This is a complex and gritty poetry-story of the life of nineteenth-century Cuban slave Juan Francisco Manzano from multiple points of view.

The Schneider Family Award for books that embody the artistic expression of the disability experience went to a work of poetry: Reaching for Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer (Bloomsbury). It is the winner in the middle grades category (age 11-13) and is a gentle novel-in-verse about a young girl growing up with a lively spirit and cerebral palsy, too. Congratulations, Tracie! (I mentioned this gem previously in my entry on April 5, 2007.)

Finally, I’m thrilled to say that our very own Odyssey Award for excellence in audiobook production was also awarded to a work of poetry: Walter Dean Myers's Jazz (produced by Live Oak Media). Dual narrators read, say, and sing these poems with verve and vitality against a backdrop of original jazz music. In addition, Walter Dean Myers will deliver the 2009 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture, as an “individual of distinction in the field of children's literature.” (I’ve also blogged about Jazz several times since it also received the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award [See Feb. 21, 2007] and when Jazz received a CSK illustrator honor citation for son Christopher Myer’s vibrant illustrations [See Jan. 24, 2007].)

I’m happy to say that ALL of these books appeared on my own lists of the best poetry of 2007 (see Dec. 31, 2007) or 2006 (see Dec. 29, 2006). How wonderful to see these rich and engaging works of poetry get the recognition they deserve. Now I hope they will also find their way into the hands of many young readers!

This week's Poetry Friday Roundup is at Becky's Farm School.
Picture credit: www.awardsunlimited.com

Hooray! The first Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production medalists have been named! As chair of the committee that had the pleasure of choosing the titles, I can say that the decision came after deliberating many wonderful productions. We were amazed that the finest titles also covered a breadth and range of ages and interests. But the truly astonishing fact was discovered only after we had completed the entire process. We all felt the planets aligning when we realized that the author of the first Odyssey winner, Walter Dean Myers, was also the winner of the first Printz Award. It was meant to be.

The winner:

Jazz. By Walter Dean Myers. Narrated by James “D-Train” Williams and Vaneese Thomas. 43min. Live Oak Media. CS, $25.95 (9781430100195); CD, $28.95 (9781430100225).
“Jazz,” a production of Live Oak Media, takes the readalong to new heights as James “D-Train” Williams and Vaneese Thomas perform the work of Walter Dean Myers. Original music accompanies each poem's performance, resulting in a rhythmic representation of mood and tone. Separate tracks for the selections and lively inclusion of a glossary and timeline create a dynamic audiobook; part poetry, part nonfiction, and wholly authentic.

The Honor audiobooks:

Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy By L. A. Meyer. Narrated by Katherine Kellgren. 8hr. Listen & Live Audio. CD $37.95. (9781593160944).
Katherine Kellgren’s vocal athleticism takes listeners from the filthy streets of eighteenth century London to the high seas in Meyer’s fast-paced novel about a girl who stows away as a cabin boy.

Dooby Dooby Moo. By Doreen Cronin. Narrated by Randy Travis. 13.36min. Weston Woods/Scholastic. CS $24.95 (9780545042833). CD $29.95 (9780545042819).
Music and barnyard chatter enhance Randy Travis’ performance of Cronin’s comic tale of talented farm animals gone wild.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. By J. K. Rowling. Narrated by Jim Dale. 21hr. Listening Library. CS, $90 (9780739360408; CD, $90(9780739360415).
Jim Dale masters and maintains voices for all genders, ages, species, and emotions created by author J.K. Rowling in this final Harry Potter adventure.

Skulduggery Pleasant. By Derek Landy. Narrated by Rupert Degas. 7.5hr. HarperChildren’s Audio. CD, $27.95 (9780061341045).
Rupert Degas fleshes out a cast of characters including a “tweenage” girl, nefarious villains, and a skeleton detective. Music and sound effects mirror the mood of this bone-rattling mystery.

Treasure Island. By Robert Louis Stevenson. Narrated by Alfred Molina. 7hr. Listening Library. CD, $55 (9780739350836).
Stevenson’s pirate classic elegantly unfolds as Alfred Molina’s panoply of accents and the soundscape of the sea place listeners aboard the Hispaniola.

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To UNCLE ANDY'S by James Warhola