Hopkins Award Poetry

Bibliography

Meyers, Walter Dean. JAZZ. 2006. Ill. by Christopher Meyers. New York: Holiday House. ISBN 9780823415458

Summary

Get your toes a tapping and fingers snapping as the father son team of Walter Dean and Christopher Meyers celebrate everything JAZZ. A rich text details the birth of jazz in America with its infusion of African and European musical traditions. The book continues with the spotlight about how jazz musicians from the states mesmerized European audience during World War I. Various forms of jazz are featured throughout the book including be-bop, vocals, stride, and blues. The importance of individual instruments and several artists are also featured in the pages of this informative selection. The book concludes with a helpful glossary of terms and a jazz timeline with an insightful look into the background of jazz.

Quality and Appeal

JAZZ is the work of poet Walter Dean Myers, winner of the 2007 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award. The book is comprised of fifteen poems celebrating the history of jazz music, musicians, instruments, and traditions. The book begins with a lengthy introduction of how jazz came to be and its progression throughout the centuries. Each poem is given a two-page spread with the text on one page and illustration on the opposite page. The exceptions to this format are both the poem, “GOOD-BYE TO OLD BOB JOHNSON” and “ THREE VOICES.” The poem “GOOD-BYE TO OLD BOB JOHNSON” is told across four pages and details the traditions of a New Orleans style funeral. At first, the mood is somber with rhythm and rhyme drawn out slowly with the words  “Let the deacons preach and the widow cry / while a sad horn sounds a last good-bye.” The illustrations complement the text with uniformed musicians walking slowly against a muted blue background. When the reader turns the page, the muted blue background has been replaced with a vivid greenish-yellow mix depicting a group of men dancing, one holding an umbrella, with another wearing a bright colored sash. The somber mood is replaced with joyous celebration when one reads the words, “We’re stepping / and we’re hipping / and we’re dipping too. We’re celebrating, syncopating, and it’s all for you.” These details encompass the customs of a New Orleans jazz funeral. In the poem, “THREE VOICES” pays tribute to the three instruments of bass, piano, and horn. Each poem within the poem, “THREE VOICES” is given its own section and illustration. One should note that the illustration for “Horn” is also the cover for the book.

The illustrations by Christopher Meyers, son of Walter Dean Meyers, are created by painting black ink on acetate and placing it over acrylic. His use of bold colors make each illustration jump off the page and are as engaging to the reader as the text. The combination of both text and illustration allow the reader to become absorbed into the world of jazz.

Most poems features throughout the book have the pattern rhyme scheme, but there is the occasional poem that is presented in free verse form. Examples for rhythm and rhyme can be seen in the lines “ there’s a steady beat walking, and the melody’s talking, too / If you ain’t moving, there must be something wrong with you.”  Examples of free verse include “AMERICA’S MUSIC,” “SESSION l” and BLUE CREEPS IN.” Repetition can be heard in the lines, “Be ba boodie, be ba boodie boo / Be ba boodie, be ba ba ba, boodie, boo,” from the poem, “TWENTY-FINGER JACK.” I could see where children would become engaged with the rhythm of this poem by bobbing their heads or snapping their fingers.

Onomatopoeia is evident in “BE-BOP,” with the lines, “ Oh be-bop be-bop, oh whee, OH WHEEE!” and “Goes screa----min’, goes screamin’, goes screa---screa—screamin’.” In The poem, “THREE VOICES” is filled with toe-tapping fun as the bass “Thum, thum, thum, and thumming.”

Figurative language in the form of personification are found in the lines “Strings crying like widows,” “Horns tearing down Jericho walls,” “this horn is my heart” and “The piano’s come alive and / I know that she’ll be driving / through the night.”

JAZZ is a great resource for teachers to spotlight various elements of poetry for their students. The illustrations alone will appeal to students due to the richness of color and emotional expressions. Small children will be captivated by the repetitive text and the allure that music holds in general. For older adolescents, the appeal lies not only in the historical significance of jazz, but in the manner in which Walter Dean Meyers gives voice to each poem. The depth of emotion that lends itself to the creation of each poem in JAZZ can be a teaching point about the importance of word choice when writing poetry.

Spotlight Poem

GOOD-BYE TO OLD BOB JOHNSON

Well, good-bye to old Bob Johnson

We’ll haul his body slow

There’s a white horse a-striding

A sad deacon riding

Six men to lay him low

The drums are solemn as we walk along

The banjo twangs a gospel song

Let the deacons preach and the widow cry

While a sad horn sounds a last good-bye

Good-bye to old Bob Johnson

Good-bye

(excerpt from GOOD-BYE TO OLD BOB JOHNSON)

Connections:

This poem speaks to the tone that poems can elicit. Before reading the poem, tell students that jazz music plays a very important role for people in the state of New Orleans. Locate a video that shows a funeral procession in the New Orleans tradition. Show students the beginning service of the jazz funeral and then read the poem “GOOD-BYE TO OLD BOB JOHNSON.” Have students compare the similarities between the poem and video. Ask students to identify emotions felt, not only by participants, but themselves. Have students collaborate to write a rhyming poem based off what they observed in the video and the poem from the book, JAZZ.