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Relying on his shaped speech patterns and carefully chosen words and phrases, the poet pays tribute to the blues in 62 poems and poetic prose pieces that will have readers humming the blues and tapping their feet along with the rythmns on the book's pages. Providing a lyrical retrospective on the roots of blues in the drums of those who were on this earth long ago and from the soil of plantations and the water of the Mississippi River, the poet also celebrates those who sing and play the blues t
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I liked this fine, but poetry is a difficult thing for me. I'm much pickier about my poetry than I am about my prose and this didn't capture me the way some of my favorite poetry does. I found the spacing on the page to be difficult to contend with in general although for a few poems I thought it worked really well. Christie's acrylic illustrations burst with color (the spread on pages 32 and 33 is a gorgeous example of this) and look somehow collaged in places. Distinct brushstrokes provide per
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This is a beautiful poetry book about the birth of The Blues. However, despite the fact that it is written for children, this is an extremely complex book. Unless the reader has background knowledge (or someone to help guide them) this book will be meaningless in the hands of a child.
I struggle so much with poetry. I can tell when something is exceptional but I always feel like I don't understand it well enough to describe it. Adoff does an amazing job with the prose of this book and the illustrations are well placed and enhance the text. A nice addition to a poetry collection.
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I loved the bluesy rhythm of these poems. I was reading them in my head & I appreciated them, but it all changed when I started reading them aloud. I took them with me on the treadmill. I was running rather slowly, but I had to run for 1/2 an hour so I decided to start reading them aloud. These poems definitely improve when read aloud or with a beat. I could see the poems, but I could feel them too. Some that i loved were: The Kerosene Lamp is Smoking up the Night Room, Climbing to the Top of th
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I have a tin ear when it comes to poetry. I don't always "get it." But even I recognized the power of these poems, and the illustrations just knocked my socks off.
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Beautiful illustrations and poetry in Adoff's "shaped speech" style bring to life the historical roots of the "Blues". A Junior Library Guild Selection.
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Beautiful form and complexity. Rich with imagery and historical references.
Apr 05, 2011
Doret
added it
Jan 05, 2012
Laura5
marked it as to-read
