R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Aretha Franklin, The Queen of Soul

Atheneum Books for Young Readers

(Simon & Schuster)

(pub. 8.25.2020) 

 48 pages

A True Tale with

A Cherry On Top   

A uthor: Carole Boston Weatherford
       and illustrator: Frank Morrison

C haracter:  Aretha Franklin

O verview:

       

"Aretha Franklin was born to sing. The daughter of a pastor and a gospel singer, her musical talent was clear from her earliest days in her father’s Detroit church where her soaring voice spanned more than three octaves.

Her string of hit songs earned her the title “the Queen of Soul,” multiple Grammy Awards, and a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But Aretha didn’t just raise her voice in song, she also spoke out against injustice and fought for civil rights.

This authoritative, rhythmic picture book biography will captivate young readers with Aretha’s inspiring story."

T antalizing taste:

D-E-B-U-T

            Fourteen, recording live, and nervous as can be.

            She cuts a gospel album, gives God the victory. 

V-O-I-C-E

            Aretha’s voice resounds with color and clarity,

            spanning three-plus octaves, the maestros all agree. 

G-R-O-O-V-E

            Aretha finds her groove when she’s rocking R&B.

            No woman of her time has more chart-toppers than

             she. 

R-I-G-H-T

            For the civil rights movement for racial equality,

            Aretha raises funds and gives concerts for free.

And something more:  Carole Boston Weatherford's Author's Note explains that "as a girl, Aretha learned to play piano by ear and sang with her sisters in the church choir. Touring the gospel music circuit with her father, she met singers Clara Ward and Mahalia Jackson and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

    At age fourteen, Aretha recorded her first album, Spirituals.  The music industry took notice, and by age eighteen, Franklin had landed a contract with Columbia Records... Franklin was not just an artist, though; she was also an activist. During the 1960s, she performed at benefit concerts to support the civil rights movement and quietly donated funds to bail protesters out of jail."

By and By

Charles Albert Tindley,
the Father of Gospel Music

Atheneum Books
for Young Readers
(pub. 1.14.2020) 
48 pages

A True Tale with

A Cherry On Top   

A uthor:  Carole Boston Weatherford
       and illustrator:  Bryan Collier

 
C haracter: Charles Albert Tindley

O verview: 

     "At a time when most African Americans were still enslaved, Charles Tindley was born free. His childhood was far from easy, with backbreaking hours in the fields, and no opportunity to go to school. But the spirituals he heard as he worked made him long to know how to read the Gospel for himself. Late at night, he taught himself to read from scraps of newspapers. From those small scraps, young Charles raised himself to become a founding father of American gospel music whose hymn was the basis for the Civil Rights anthem 'We Shall Overcome.'

      Told in lilting verse with snippets of spirituals and Tindley’s own hymns woven throughout, Carole Boston Weatherford’s lyrical words and Bryan Collier’s luminous pictures celebrate a man whose music and conviction has inspired countless lives."

T antalizing taste: 

"Berlin, Maryland, 1851.
Charles and Hester had a son.
Father, enslaved, but Mother, free;
The law spared me from slavery. 

Minding master, hired out to farms.

I think of children with parents at home ...
While mine are gone and I am alone.

Chants in the field at break of dawn.
Keep yo' han' on-a dat plow. Hold on!
Hold on!

Spirituals, first Bible that I heard.
I yearned for more - to read the Word."

And something more: In a joint interview by The Booking Biz with her artist/spoken word poet son, Jeffery Boston Weatherford, Carole Boston Weatherford discusses where she gets ideas for her books: "I get inspiration from educators, family, my hometowns, my travels, the media and even music. I was moved to write BY AND BY: CHARLES A. TINDLEY, THE FATHER OF GOSPEL MUSIC after having listened to his hymns in church."  She also answers the question "If you ruled the world, what would it look like?": "More women would be in charge. There would be more equality and less of a wealth gap. Policies would value children, the elderly and people of color. The Golden Rule would rule."

Dancing Hands

How Teresa Carreno
Played the Piano
For President Lincoln

Atheneum Books for Young Readers
(Simon and Schuster)
(pub. 8.27.2019) 
 40 pages

A True Tale with

A Cherry On Top   

A uthor: Margarita Engle
      and illustrator:  Rafael Lopez

 
C haracter: Teresa Carreno

O verview: 
     "As a little girl, Teresa Carreno loved to let her hands dance across the beautiful keys of the piano. If she felt sad, music cheered her, and when she was happy, the piano helped her share that joy. Soon she was writing her own songs and performing in grand cathedrals.
     Then a revolution in Venezuela drove her family to flee to the United States. Teresa felt lonely in this unfamiliar place, where few of the people she met spoke Spanish. Worst of all, there was fighting in her new home, too - a Civil War.
     Still, Teresa kept playing, and soon she grew famous as the talented Piano Girl who could play anything from a folk song to a sonata. So famous, in fact, that President Abraham Lincoln wanted her to play at the white House! Yet with the country torn apart by war, could Teresa's music bring comfort to those who needed it most?"

T antalizing taste: 
     "But the piano was poorly tuned, making her music sound ugly. What should she do? Refuse to play?
     She stopped, feeling discouraged, until Mister Lincoln smiled kindly and asked for his favorite song, 'Listen to the Mockingbird.' 
     Teresa knew she could play this lively piece even on an imperfect piano, so her fingers leaped across all the glorious dark and light keys, improvising the way mockingbirds do, the melody changing a she went along. Music swirled, twirled, and soared on wings of sound.
     The president listened quietly to notes that rose, swayed, rippled, and dipped like a bird in a blue sky above a green forest."

And something more: The Historical Note states that "Teresa Carreno became known as a composer and opera singer, as well as one of the best pianists of her era, playing with  such an intense spirit that audience members claimed they could hear the power of tropical nature in her music. She settled in Berlin, but returned to New York during World War I. Her remains, concert gowns, piano, and many of her documents were eventually returned to Venezuela, where she is remembered as La Leona ('The Lioness') of the piano."