Blues Journey
Bibliography
Myers, Walter Dean. 2003. BLUES JOURNEY. Ill. By Myers, Christopher. New York: Holiday House. ISBN 0823416135.
Plot Summary
Blues, a single word idiom, is presented in a picture book of poetic expressions and vivid illustrations. Myers writes in a poetic style of “call and respond,” which he explains in his introduction of the history of the blues. The verses are about things that affect the blues singer’s life. Christopher’s use of brown paper bags with blue ink and white paint capture the meaning of each verse. Symbolism is essential in blues. Myers provided a glossary for the symbolism he uses in Blues Journey.
Critical Analysis
Walter Dean Myers is an African American writer. He writes from his experience as a black man and his understanding of the hardships blacks have endured. His background as a poet and musician allow him to write rich poetry in a picture book for older children.
Myers starts with an introduction to explain the style of poetry he chose to use in Blues Journey. The call and respond style was developed during slavery “Heard the top deck groaning, yes and the ocean roar, Heard my brother crying till I couldn’t hear no more.” It was a style of the chain gang on up to its present use in picture books.
Historical events, chain gangs, slave ships, and lynching, help develop the cultural background , “Strange fruit hanging, high in a big oak tree, You can see what it did to Willie, can you see what it does to me?” Each verse has an illustration to better explain what happened and how it happened to a certain race and class of people. Poor people expressing their hardship, “Life can be so hard, living in a two-room shack.”
It’s part of a journey through the life of one race. Several settings emerge, a large slave ship, a horse-drawn cart on a dusty road, workers in a chain gang, two children sharing a small cot and a child seated on a curb crying as another child pats his back.
The history of blues is important and the illustrations provide this significant connection to our lives. Reading the poem reminded me that I use to live in a two-room house. At times there were thirteen people in those two rooms. My grandfather was a share crop farmer in Oklahoma.
C. Myers details allow him to present powerful drawing. His use of brown paper bags and highlighting each picture with blue establish his own individuality. The pictures tell the sadness, joy, and haunting struggles that Blacks have endured.
Blues Journey provides a look at black history for older children. It challenges them to look at this picture book with a more sophisticated eye and to understand the symbolism of blues. It provides a strong message for young blacks emphasising a family, father and son, working together.
Review Excerpts
The School Library-- The tightly controlled, yet endlessly surprising palette consists of blue (ink), white (paint), and brown (paper bags). Many of the bodies and backgrounds are literally blue, with white highlights. This chilling effect is tempered by the warm texture of the brown bags. As the journey progresses, the lyrics and art look at loss through the lenses of slavery, poverty, lynching, love spurned, fear of dying-and of living. An author's note provides a lucid description of the history, elements, and importance of the blues. Symbolism is explored in a glossary. Artist and author push the idiom-and the picture book-to new dimensions. Their song will slide through readers' ears and settle into their souls.
Booklist--Much of Myers' poetry here is terrific, by turn, sweet, sharp, ironic, but it's the memorable collage artwork, executed in the bluest of blue ink and brown paper that will draw readers first. Once inside the book, some children will immediately hear the songs the poetry sings; others will have to listen more closely.
Connections
Children who love music will be connect to the title and book cover. Teachers can use it in a choral presentation during Black History Month.
Similar Picture books
Iqus, Toyomi. I SEE THE RHYTHM. ISBN 0892392126.
Roessel, David. POETRY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE: LANGSTON HUGHES. ISBN 1402718454
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John Henry
Lester, Julius. 1994. JOHN HENRY. Ill. By Pinkney, Jerry. New York: Puffin Books. ISBN 0803716060.
Plot Summary
John Henry was an American Legend and there are several versions of a song about “Big John.” Mr. Lester used his experience as a folk singer and his research about John Henry to write his picture book. He ties in modern day words and phrases to connect with his present audience.
Mr. Pinkney’s warm earth tone watercolor illustrations move the story along in large chunks. The story jumps from the rapid growth of the baby, the construction of a wing with a swimming pool and jacutzis, changing the morals of a bully, and building a road. A symbolic rainbow remained with him until he died. People believe the rainbow helped them understand that everybody has to die but “What matters is how well you do our living.”
Critical Analysis
Mr. Lester takes the tale of an American Legend and presents it in a fast moving story with contemporary references of our present times. It was a good concept but I didn’t agree with where he placed some of his connectors. John the baby grows up overnight and the next day he knows about indoor swimming pools and jacutzis’. It made me think and I became disengaged.
The theme of living a moral life took the character with super strength and made him more of an everyday person. He replaced the broken porch for his parents and added a swimming pool and jacutzis. He reforms “Ferret-Faced Freddy” and makes him a nice guy, “Frederick the Friendly.” He not only pulverized the bolder but he finished the road. The rainbow, I believe, was a symbol of love for mankind, “..a hammer on each shoulder, the rainbow draped around him like love.”
Mr. Lester is a folk singer and an accomplished writer. He’s an African American. His research about John Henry included studying two particular versions of the song, one by B.A. Botkins and the other by Alan Lomas.
Illustrations and dialect are the two most vibrant cultural markers. One example was John talking to the sun, “Get up from there! I got things to do and I need light to do ‘em by.” The dialect of the boss over the steam drill also showed less educated southern class of people, “Don’t make me no never mind.”
The setting was in the south depicted by the location of the railroad, Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad through West Virginia. Animals and country illustrations indicated the rural setting.
John Henry helped anyone he met and the crowd of people at his funeral depicted a multicultural audience. The burial at the White House reflected back his status as an American Legend.
Review Excerpts
Caldecott Honor Book
Publisher Weekly—A great American hero comes fully to life in this epic retelling filled with glorious, detailed watercolors.
School Library Journal—Based on several well known versions of an African American folk ballad, Lester’s tale is true to the essence of the steel-driving man; yet, it allows room for touches of whimsy and even includes some contemporary references that tie the hero to our own times.
Connections
Teachers could use John Henry to introduce an American Literature lesson. Children can discuss the characteristics of a true hero and create their own. You could discuss the questions, “Do hero’s or legends always make wise decisions? Would it be right to bury American Hero’s on the White House grounds?”
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