The Jazz of Our Street

By Fatima Shaik

Book Overview

New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz, is the setting for this joyful book celebrating jazz parades and their traditions. The lyrical text shows how this quintessentially American musical form weaves... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803718853
• ISBN13: 9780803718852
• Release Date: May 1998
• Publisher: Dial Books
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.5" x 11.0"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

Good Choice

I wanted this book for my class to view during Mardi Gras week. It is colorful and fun. I have had it on display and the kids are anxious to look at it. It was a good choice and I am glad I bought it. The story does get to be a little long, but it explains the music of New Orleans well.

4 1/2* The Rhythm of the Street

There's a vibrant rhythm to this story of a New Orleans marching band and the dancers who follow it. Fatima Shaik's combination of free verse and rhyme evoke the syncopation of jazz, and the writing is full of rich similes that describe the feelings of sound: "The sound is like slippers slipping and scraping on the long gravel streets. The songs growl like mad boys who fall too hard to their beds." Although the book is short on plot, children will enjoy watching the procession and celebration of the neighborhoods' residents. After marching through the streets, the musicians and dancers "pause ...to silently recollect the reason we gather together at all":Because the tradition of love is our mission.The book has some of the most beautiful watercolors I've seen recently, but the city is too sanitized and bereft of its color, stripped of some of its distinctive grit and realism. There's a great picture showing an example of traditional New Orleans architecture, but I would have liked more. A nice touch is the Author's Note about the history of New Orleans marching jazz bands and the "second line" of dancers who follow them.