Charlie Parker Played Be Bop

Publishers Weekly

Popular picture books now appearing in the sturdy format and board book originals gather together in a variety of favorite subjects. Chris Raschka's Charlie Parker Played Be Bop makes the transition to board gracefully, with its one line of text per spread and its bold graphics of the stunning saxophonist. PW wrote of the original picture book published in 1992, "Regardless of whether they've heard of jazz or Charlie Parker, young readers will bop to the pulsating beat of this sassy picture book." Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Regardless of whether they've heard of jazz or Charlie Parker, young readers will bop to the pulsating beat of this sassy picture book. In a daring attempt to capture the raw energy of Parker's music (and in language recalling the verbal theatrics of Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault), Raschka combines a text that's as lean as a poem and as mean as a blues refrain (``Charlie Parker played be bop. / Charlie Parker played no trombone. / The music sounded like be bop. / Barbecue that last leg bone'') with vigorously skewed illustrations gleaming with sly wit. Even the typeface joins in the fun, as italics and boldface strut and swing across the pages. Those in the know will enjoy the inside jokes (the pages, for example, are decorated with birds, after Parker's nickname); young and old alike will find this a read-aloud that's hard to resist. And that's no jive. Ages 3-6. (Aug.)

Children's Literature - Mary Quattlebaum

Exuberant and wacky, sound-filled and life-affirming-that's how I'd sum up this book. The text is jazzy, crammed with boomba sounds and reeti-footi tweets. And famed saxophone player Charlie Parker is bigger than life. His horn, torso, and head fill the page, spill beyond the margins. Raschka's combination of big block shapes and busy, curling doodles create a sense of energy and spontaneity, a visual tribute to jazz music. Check out the hair on Parker's arms, the lines on his sax. And those absurd, parading figures-chickadees, overshoes, bus stops-are delightful.

School Library Journal

Gr 2-6-Jazz artist Richard Allen uses his smooth, mellow voice to bring life to Chris Raschka's Charlie Parker Played Be-Bop (Orchard, 1992). Prior to the reading of the story, Raschka introduces his book and explains that the story will be read twice: slowly the first time so that listeners can catch every word, and then in time to the background music. During the first reading, the background music occasionally almost overpowers the narrative; in the second reading the two meld beautifully. There are no page turn signals, but the small number of words per page make it easy to follow along. Following the performance of the story, Raschka explains that the music in the background is "A Night in Tunisia," performed by Charlie Parker along with several jazz greats such as Dizzy Gillespie. Raschka also provides some background into the time period when Parker first performed his music and suggests other well known jazz musicians to listen to. While the book will appeal to young listeners, the recording will work well with an older audience where jazz is being studied.-Veronica Schwartz, Des Plaines Public Library, IL Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 2-- Despite its appealing, rhythmic cadence, this book doesn't evoke the music of Charlie Parker. The watercolor and charcoal pencil illustrations are funky and funny, but sometimes confounding. In particular, the characterization of Parker is overly stylized, resulting in a caricature rather than a character. The story line--of the musician's cat waiting for him to come home--will be lost on young readers; in fact, it will be apparent only to those reading the flap copy. Nicely designed, the layout makes effective use of different typefaces and appropriate sound words (``The music sounded like be bop . . . overshoes, overshoes, overshoes, o, . . . ''), but the nonsense phrases only increase the general confusion (``Barbeque that last leg bone . . . .''), as do some of the illustrations, particularly a boot with feet that ``hip hops'' through the pages. There is also an upside-down illustration of Parker that looks more like a mistake than a variation on the theme. This is an intriguing, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to illuminate jazz for young readers, who would be served far better by books like Thacher Hurd's upbeat Mama Don't Allow (HarperCollins, 1984) or Rachel Isadora's Ben's Trumpet (Greenwillow, 1979). --Cyrisse Jaffee, Newton Public Schools, MA