Book News

“Children’s Books: Now Introducing the Sensational Josephine Baker”    1/10/17 Wall Street Journal

‘As regal as a queen by day, as wild as a leopard by night”: The exuberant, exotic and almost impossibly glamorous Josephine Baker streaked across the cultural firmament of the early 20th century like a beautiful bronze meteor.

That, certainly, is the approving verdict of history, though like many a bold and unconventional person, Baker has had her detractors. Young readers will get a bracing sense of the force of personality behind the famous name in “Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker” (Chronicle, 104 pages, $17.99), written by Patricia Hruby Powell. This attractive volume has the physical heft of a novel, but with its rollicking prose and Christian Robinson’s vibrant illustrations—all in the service of an extraordinary life story—the overall effect is of a picture book that simply will not quit.

A Christian Robinson illustration from Patricia Hruby Powell’s ‘Josephine.’ Chronicle

This quality perfectly suits the woman celebrated in these pages, a saucy and determined individual who rose from abject poverty in 1906 St. Louis to command adoring audiences across Europe during the Jazz Age. She would later not only spy for the Free French during World War II, writing secrets on her sheet music with invisible ink, but also adopt a dozen children of different races whom she raised in a French château.

As Ms. Powell tells it, Baker burned from her earliest days both with love of dance and with outrage at racial prejudice. “Anger heated and boiled into steam, pressing hot in a place deep in her soul,” the author writes, evoking the central motif of the book, and it was on the stage that she found her outlet. As “Josephine’s volcanic core heated . . . the comic in her got funnier, like a hot steam release.”

Flashing a gorgeous smile, crossing her eyes and shimmying like fury, Baker was a sensation, and we rejoice to see her in Mr. Robinson’s autumn-hued, naif illustrations. It is a shame, however—if perhaps unavoidable—that he chose not to depict even a version of the famous Paul Colin poster that introduced Baker to Parisian audiences; the placard has a retrograde, minstrel-like feel, it is true, but surely children ages 8-14 who can read about the 1925 poster could also be trusted to look at it.

<<http://www.shelf-awareness.com>>. November 27, 2013 children’s book

Book Review:  “…staccato phrases move like music…”

Children’s Review: Josephine

Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell , illus. by Christian Robinson (Chronicle, $17.99 hardcover, 104p., ages 7-10, 9781452103143, January 14, 2014)

Patricia Hruby Powell (Blossom Tales) begins this biography of the larger-than-life Josephine Baker (1906–1975) with her 1927 quote, “I shall dance all my life…. I would like to die, breathless, spent, at the end of a dance.” A dancer herself, Powell uses rhythmic language like the beat to this life well lived, and chronicles how Baker fulfilled her wish, leaving this life after a triumphant opening at the Bobino theater in Paris, at age 69.

Christian Robinson’s (Harlem’s Little Blackbird) pleasingly flat-planed, folk-art style  works to dramatic effect. Drab background colors as Josephine’s mother scrubs floors to support the family give way to a bright white backdrop of vaudeville dancers on the next page, the manifestation of the woman’s own dreams of dancing. He follows Tumpy, the childhood incarnation of Josephine, as she transforms into a dancer whose “knees squeeze, now fly/ heels flap and chop/ arms scissor and splay/ eyes swivel and pop.” A teenage Josephine, suspended above the stage as Cupid, seems to swing off the page, her arms and legs pumping as if with a child’s joy on a playground swing. Powell suggests that Baker’s witness of the East Saint Louis riots seeded “the core of a volcano” that she’d later channel into her dances.

Creative use of type and design lay out the text like poetry; italics indicate original quotes (attributed on an end page). Brief staccato phrases move like music (“she stumbled off balance on elastic legs–/ on purpose–/ looked up in surprise,/ dropped her elbows/ like limp washcloths,/ crossed her eyes, flashed a smile./ And the audience laughed”). Powell lays out the realities of segregation in the United States for a touring Josephine and, by contrast, the warm welcome she received in France. The author suggests, however, that even after headlining at the Folies Bergère in Paris, Baker never quite felt at home in her native land. She became “the first and only Negro star” of America’s Ziegfeld Follies, yet had to enter her hotel through the servants’ entrance. Powell discusses Baker’s work in the French Resistance and how she lived out her philosophy through her “rainbow tribe”–12 children she and her husband adopted from around the world and raised in their own religions.

Powell and Robinson create a biography of a woman whose life and art are inseparable. Josephine Baker did exactly what she set out to do: she danced all her life. —Jennifer M. Brown

Josephine’s first two reviews are starred! So this is blatant toasting. The reviews follow.

The book will be released January 14, 2014.

Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker
By Patricia Hruby Powell
Illustrated by Christian Robinson

Publishers Weekly Starred Review
11/1/2013

«“Baker’s entire life spreads out in this tapestry of words.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

Full Review:

Segregated American clubs were willing to let African-American dancer Josephine Baker (1906–1975) perform, but they wouldn’t let her use the front door. Powell (Frog Brings Rain) chooses a potent metaphor for Baker’s hidden anger: “hot magma, molten lava, trapped within.” When Baker arrived in France, the country embraced both her artistry and her blackness, and “Her deep volcanic core—filled with emotion, filled with music—erupted.” Robinson (Rain!) draws round faces gazing with amazement at the woman onstage whose pearl necklace flies one way and whose hips swing the other. Baker’s entire life spreads out in this tapestry of words, from a St. Louis childhood surrounded by music to her triumphs all over Europe—followed, sadly, by debt and illness. Robinson’s naif, folk-style figures look like puppets, and make some grim moments easier to endure (“Those ugly rumors incited some white folks/ to beat, murder, and burn black East St. Louis”). Although Powell’s focus is on Baker, the contrast between segregated America and welcoming France will not be lost on readers.

Kirkus Reviews Starred Review
11/1/2013
« “An extraordinary dancer and woman is here celebrated with style and empathy.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Full Review:
A life devoted to self-expression through dance and racial harmony is celebrated in this lavish, lengthy picture book.

Writing in free verse, former dancer Powell pays homage to the fabulous Josephine Baker. Baker rose from a childhood of poverty and race riots in St. Louis, Mo., to dance in New York and Paris, the city where she finally achieved fame and escaped American segregation and racism. Grateful to the French, she worked as a spy during World War II and later adopted 12 children from around the world: She called them her Rainbow Tribe. The author excels at describing Baker’s innovative and memorable dance routines and her fantastical life in Paris, where she walked her pet leopard, each adorned with a diamond choker. The book is arranged as stage acts, each covering a segment of her story. With this device, Powell and Robinson create an air of expectancy before the curtain rises and a time to reflect and admire as it falls in front of a stage strewn with flowers. Robinson’s stunning acrylic paintings depict elongated figures and recreate Baker’s movements and costumes with verve and dynamism. The page design features well-placed text, occasional quotes and vibrant hues, further complementing its striking subject.

An extraordinary dancer and woman is here celebrated with style and empathy.

I introduced my book Josephine (The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker) to the students of Central Park School (K-8) in Midlothian, a

south suburb of Chicago. Which means I showed them an image of the book cover illustrated by Christian Robinson, read them the first razzle dazzle pages, and danced the Charleston. Josephine (Chronicle Books) will be released in October 2013.

In the assembly presentation for the 6^th -8^th graders I told them about my research for my newest book, Loving vs Virginia. They seemed fascinated. The population of Central Park School is one third black, one third Hispanic, and one third white. The diversity is terrific. So yeah, they’d be interested in Richard Loving (white) who married Mildred Jeter (“colored”). The couple was arrested in their bed, for being married in Virginia in 1958. It took nine years for their case to go the US Supreme Court and for a ruling in their favor. All that time Mr. and Mrs. Loving (yep Loving—perfect name) could not live together as a couple in Virginia. They were very much in love. In those nine years of struggle they were raising three children, but had to live in Washington DC or hide while in Virginia to avoid being re-arrested.

Family Reading Night at Central Park School, on February 12 brought out 38 families as well as the Honorable William Davis, Illinois State Congressman. The Congressman spoke about the benefits of reading and his work to fund education, so I figured he was a democrat, which he is. So I commended him. Actually I might have said something like, “Great, I love you.” But it being just before Valentine’s Day, I wasn’t arrested or anything.

Thank you Illinois Arts Council and Central Park School’s wonderful staff and students—that’s:

Principal: Colandra Hamilton

Assistant Principal: Adam Thorn

Reading Recovery Teacher and my main sponsor: Ellen Mientus (yay)

Reading Recovery Teacher and assistant to Ms. Mientus: Beth Schramm

3^rd grade Teacher to my Core Class: Karen Irwin (with whom I loved team teaching)

and the whole rest of the staff. And the students. You are great!

Kathy Hughes is doing the coolest project with her fifth grade reading class at Carrie Busie Elementary in Champaign, IL.

She started with “Professor Puffendorf’s Secret Potion,” a book by Robin Tzannes and Korky Paul (Checkerboard Press 1992). The students read the book and asked if they could see the movie.

Ms. Hughes said, “Sure.”

But there was no movie. So the girls asked if they could make their own movie.

Ms. Hughes, being the kind of great teacher she is, said, “Sure. You need to write your own parts.”

But first, since the story is set in a science laboratory, the class brainstormed ideas of what might be invented. Ms. Hughes gave her students dry markers and they wrote right on the formica desk tops. Very cool.

There just happen to be three characters in the book and three students in the class, so it was not too difficult to divide up the roles.

Cast

Professor Puffendorf, the protagonist – Geneva

Slag, the antagonist – Chevelle

Chip, the hamster – Anya

The girls knew the story well and could ad lib the story with lines and action. And they could switch roles for various takes.

Ms. Hughes brought in some big white shirts that looked like lab coats. The girls felt they looked a lot more hip, unbuttoned, so Ms. Hughes shrugged and said “Well, okay.” It was their production, after all.

Ms. Hughes filmed them with her flip camera (which she’d won at a teacher raffle the previous year). The girls reviewed their work as it played on the computer and noted that the flapping white shirts looked wrong. So they buttoned up the oversized shirts so they’d look more like lab coats.

They were able to watch their performance, self-correct, re-dramatize and improve their roles and do take two. It looked pretty good.

They entered titles, characters, and cast members for their production on the computer, and printed them out. These, they held up to the camera for the credits.

Three. Roll em–the complete drama of “Professor Puffendorf’s Secret Potion” self-directed by self-observation by the actors, with a new dramatic ending. Cut.

Next, they get to invite a friend to come watch their production which Ms. Hughes had transferred to a DVD.

There are plenty of other stories that you could enact and film. We’d all love to hear what books you think might work for this project. Or simply what book-centered projects you’re working on in your classroom. You don’t have to be a teacher to contact me. I’d love to hear from students. Or parents.

Now this is cool:  Illinois children’s author James Kennedy has started the 90 Second Newbery Film Festival. This is what you do. Make a video that compresses the story of a Newbery award-winning book into 90 seconds or less. Submit it to the film festival. The films have been shown at the New York Public Library, the Chicago Public Library and next, to be shown in Portland, Oregon. Watch the films and find out more, here.  http://jameskennedy.com/90-second-newbery/

Above: James and friend read his book. And to the right: his book: Order of the Odd Fish.