When The Beat Was Born

DJ Kool Herc and 
the Creation of Hip Hop

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Nonfiction Monday Roundup

and also joins It's Monday!

What are you reading?

at Teacher Mentor Texts

Roaring Brook Press (MacMillan)

(pub. 8.27.2013)  32 pages

A True Tale with 
A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Laban Carrick Hill
           and Illustrator: Theodore Taylor III

    

C haracter:  DJ Kool Herc

O verview from the jacket flap: 

"DJ Kool Herc lived in the Bronx, where there was a lot of fighting. But he didn't want to fight. He wanted to play music.

DJ Kool Herc had a new way of spinning records. He played the breaks of songs back-to-back so that the music best for dancing could go on and on...

This is the story of DJ Kool Herc. The story of how he came to be a DJ, how kids in his neighborhood stopped fighting in order to break-dance, and how he invented a new kind of music that would change the world.

This is the story of hip hop."

T antalizing taste: 

     "Clive loved music. It didn't matter what kind. Whether it was a wah wah scat of a jiving trumpet, a sorrowful twang of sad voice, or the belting boom of a gospel singer, little Clive loved the way sound thumped and bumped all the way down in his stomach. he loved the way the music made his feet go HIP HIP HOP, HIPPITY HOP."

and something more: In the Author's Note, Laban Carrick Hill writes that in 1980 he had a job that "entailed walking block by block through Harlem and the South Bronx... In the late afternoon, I would approach a corner and hear a loud thumping. The booming would be so deep that it would almost shake the ground... When I came around that corner I saw fifty or so teens dancing some of the most amazing dances I had ever seen. The dances defied gravity and human flexibility. The performances were miraculous feats of physical agility. And they were all done to the beat of records spun by a DJ." As he explained, it was "a youth movement that was the antithesis of gang violence."  Laban Carrick Hill "was so captivated by the music and the dancing that [he] started going to clubs... and heard the story of DJ Kool Herc."  
     

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The Boy Who Loved Math

The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos

This post joins other
Nonfiction Monday
kidlit blogs hosted today
by Jean Little Library

and joins It's Monday!

What are you reading?

at Teacher Mentor Texts

Roaring Brook Press (MacMillan)

(pub. 6.25.2013)  44 pages

A True Tale with 
A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Deborah Heiligman 
           and Illustrator: LeUyen Pham

    

C haracter:  Paul Erdos - mathematician 

O verview from the back cover: 

      "There once was a boy named Paul who loved math. He spent his days calculating, counting and thinking about numbers.
       He couldn't tie his shoes or butter his own toast - sometimes the world just didn't seem like it was made for a boy who only thought about math all day long.
      This is the story of how Paul found his own way in the world by making friends and sharing his ideas, and how he grew to become one of the world's most famous an beloved mathematicians."
  

T antalizing taste: 

     "He was the kind of person to do math. He was the kind of person to do math. All of the time. And he still didn't like to follow rules.
     So he invented his own way to live.
     Here is what he did... He flew across the world, from Toronto to Australia. 'I have no home,' he declared. 'The world is my home.'
     And wherever he went, when he got there, the same thing would happen.
     A mathematician would meet him and take him home. The mathematician and Paul worked on math. Paul played with the mathematician' epsilons. That's what Paul called children, because an epsilon is a very small amount in math...
     Why did friends all over the world put up with him? And take care of him? Call him Uncle Paul and love him?
     Because Paul Erdos was a genius - and he shared his brain... and his money, too. Whatever money he had, he gave away. He gave money to poor people and he offered prize money for unsolved math problems.
     Paul said he never wanted to stop doing math. And he didn't."

and something more: 
     What a terrific book to entice kids to love math! 
     I was interested to read Deborah Heiligman's explanation in "A Note From the Author" as to why she wrote this book: "When I was a child I loved math as much as I loved reading the writing. But as I got older, I started to think that math was for other people not me. So how did I come to write a book about a brilliant and important mathematician? All the credit goes to my sons... Paul [Erdos] demonstrated that math could be fun and social. If he weren't already depicted as a saint on a church wall (in San Francisco), I'd lobby for it."  I'm heading to this Potrero Hill church to check out this artwork!
     I too have two sons who love math, and I can't wait to ask them if they know about Paul Erdos. And, I want to know if their math teachers ever mentioned if they had an "Erdos number."  Deborah explains the concept of the Erdos Number in The Boy Who Loved Math: " All over the world mathematicians still talk about and love Uncle Paul. Even people who never met him. They talk about their 'Erdos number. If you did math with Paul you get an Erdos number of 1. If you worked with someone who worked with Paul, your Erdos number is 2. People are so proud of their Erdos numbers." I laughed when I read Deborah's jacket flap bio: "While researching this book, Deborah was told she might receive a special Erdos number of 1.5. That would make her infinitely happy." And she would deserve it! 

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Abe Lincoln's Dream

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday
hosted today by Booktalking

and joins It's Monday!
What are you reading?

at Teacher Mentor Texts

Roaring Brook Press

(pub. 10.16.12) 32 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor and illustrator: Lane Smith

C haracter: fictional girl with ghost of Abe Lincoln

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "How long should a man's legs be? [answer: long enough to reach the floor]

       The 16th president had recurring dreams, liked corny jokes, and now his ghost paces the White House fretting about the state of the union. It takes a a little girl on a school tour - armed with a few corny jokes of her own - to answer his questions and settle his spirit.

        From one of our most celebrated picture book artists comes an affectionate ode to our most celebrated president and the nation he shaped. Inspired by true stories and White House trivia, Lane Smiths' Lincoln takes flight with characteristic humor and extraordinary artistry."

        

T antalizing taste: 

           "Then one day a girl wandering from her tour discovered a tall man standing over the Gettysburg address.'

           'Hi,' said Quincy.

           'Hello, child,' he said.

            He was dressed in black from hat to boot, but she wasn't frightened; he had a long face that made her feel sorry for him.

            'Are you lost?' she asked.

            'I don't think so,' he said, walking through a wall.

         

and something more: I was intrigued to learn that Lane Smith's wife, Molly Leach, is the designer of his creative whimsical books, including Abe Lincoln's Dream. I loved what he wrote about her on his website: [She's the] greatest book designer working today. She has designed nearly all of my books. When she designed the Stinky Cheese Man back in 1992 folks called it a 'watershed moment.' Suddenly every designer wanted to make books with crazy type and upside-down pages. The problem is it is very hard to do unless you know how. Molly knows how. She is also very funny and very pretty...She makes everything I do 100 times better but since most people don’t know what a designer does, I usually get all the credit. This isn’t fair." Well, here's to both Molly Leach AND Lane Smith -- a great team!

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Django

World's Greatest Jazz Guitarist

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday 
hosted today by proseandkahn

 

 Roaring Brook Press Flash Point (MacMillan)

(pub. 9.1.2009)  32 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top 

A uthor and illustrator: Bonnie Christensen

    
C haracter: Django Reinhardt

 

O verview from jacket flap: 

      "'When I think about the best guitar players ever, the first name that comes to mind is Django Reinhardt. No one has ever equaled his sound or technique.' - Willie Nelson

     Born into extreme poverty in a gypsy encampment, Django Reinhardt (1910-1953) overcame tremendous obstacles, including a debilitating injury, to become the world's most acclaimed jazz guitarist."

 

T antalizing taste: 

       "Djano doesn't hear the chatter
        Listening to the saxes sigh.
        Trombones moan, clarinets wail
        Jazz riffs curling through the night.

        Jazz Americain, jazz like Django -
                      moving bending
                      changing blending
        Try that rhythm, stretch that measure,
        syncopation.  Twist that line."    

and something more: I recently saw Picasso's Guitars exhibit at MOMA in New York, and was struck by the beauty of his various interpretations of guitars, mostly in a cubist style.  In the exhibit catalog, I read that although he wasn't particularly interested in music, Picasso was drawn to flamenco music -- the guitar music of Spanish gypsies.  And then I found this wonderful nonfiction picture book biography, Django, by Bonnie Christensen about a gypsy guitarist -- isn't it funny how ideas seem to attract similar ideas?  Serendipity!

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