Jazz Baby

Not only did my little granddaughter repeatedly asked for this book, but she walked around the house saying “jazz baby” and “go, man, go.” This is a super enjoyable book to read to a child. It is rhythmic and interactive. Even if the child has never heard a single bit of jazz music, they will go away with an idea of its flavor.

Written in rhyme and easily sung, the book shows how a baby’s musical family entertains him, and each other, throughout the day. It begins, “Brothers hands tap. Sister’s hand snap. Itsy-bitsy Baby’s hands clap – clap – clap!”

The illustrations are odd. People are drawn with black outlines colored in with watercolors. Features are exaggerated and distorted. Most arms and legs are like show more spaghetti, lacking elbows and knees. Yet, it works.

Neither you nor your child will tire of this book. show less

A swinging, jazzy and rhythmically poetic bedtime story for younger children (especially young music, or more specifically, young jazz music enthusiasts), I quite enjoyed both the text and the illustrations of Jazz Baby, written by Lisa Wheeler, with illustrations by R. Gregory Christie. The fun and rhythmically engaging combination of words and images display a wonderful energy, flow and cadence, and will have children and adults alike desiring to dance, to sing, to jazz-it-up. The only potential (and small) drawback to this delightful little gem of a picture book is that very energetic and active children might not be calmed, but energised by this story, wanting to continue to dance and sing, instead of going to bed.

Terrific to read aloud, sure. Lively art that many will love, sure. But I dunno; I guess I'm just not the target audience? Maybe on another day it'd hit me better?

The amount of motion that R. Gregory Christie gets into his illustrations for Lisa Wheeler's swinging text is just amazing. I can see this as an animated short in my head just from the illustrations on the page. I'd love to hear the text put to music as well. The sounds included in the text and repetetive sentence structure make this great for both read-alouds and beginning readers. The illustrations, done in gouache, include a variety of skin tones and lots of bright colors with simple lines. Christie isn't afraid of white space either, which provides welcome resting places for eyes just getting used to the reading process. Tons of fun.

Jazz Baby won the honor for the Theodor Seuss Geisel book award, it is a celebration book about music and big families. The book follows a multi-cultural family throughout their musical expression before putting the jazz baby to bed. The book is vibrant through its word choice and rhythm but also through its illustrations. This book is very easy to read and sing along with, which I really enjoyed, “So they TOOT-TOOT-TOOT and they SNAP-SNAP-SNAP and the bouncin’ baby bebops with a CLAP-CLAP-CLAP!” This type of rhythm is seen throughout the whole book, younger children could have a lot of fun rhyming with these words or just working on their sounds. I would categorize this book with multi-cultural because it is about jazz and a show more multi-cultural family. I thought it was interesting how the family of the jazz baby was not just darker or lighter, but they were all an array of different skin tones. It’s important to show children that many multicultural families do exist and that is one reason I picked this book. show less

Very short, simple book. Not many words per spread, which makes it suited for even little-little ones.

I love how the text is largely done with sound words (there's a word for that, but I can't for the life of me remember how to spell it!) or scat singing. Very bouncy, very great, wonderful way to teach basic wordplay for little ones.

I'm not a huge fan of the illustrations. They're not ill-suited for the text, they just aren't a style I happen to like. What you see on the cover is pretty much what you get inside, either you like it or not. However, even though they're not my taste, I can see why the illustrator chose to do it this way - the pictures almost seem to move with the rhythm of the music in the words. It works. (Even if it's show more not my favorite style ever.)

All in all, I highly recommend this one. show less

Even the most unmusical reader will scat their way through this book as a loving extended family puts a baby to bed. Reminiscent of "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" (1989), the rhyming onomatopoeia and alliteration make "Jazz Baby" a joy to read aloud.

Recommended for ages 4-8.

A Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book, 2008.