Center Stage: A Trio of Titles on the Arts

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Joyce Adams Burner -- School Library Journal, 10/20/2009

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Watch two mini-documentaries of Ashley Bryan demonstrating his craft and artistry

Vibrant illustrations and exuberant text fill the color-drenched pages of three new titles depicting African-American artists. Valerie Gladstone’s A Young Dancer: The Life of an Ailey Student (Holt, 2009; Gr 3-8) follows Iman Bright, 13, through her busy life as a dance student at the famed Alvin Ailey School in New York City. Iman tells of working with artistic director Judith Jamison, stressing the importance of foundational exercises and discipline as she takes classes in ballet, jazz, modern, and West African dance. Jóse Ivey’s color photographs of the long-limbed dancer rehearsing at Ailey, laughing with school friends in the Bronx, and taking Saturday violin lessons capture her joy and self-confidence in dance and life, in a sparkling treatment sure to inspire middle grade readers.

“The world was aflame, the men soldiering at the front./The Sweethearts had no philosophy: They just did their duty./A girl has to trumpet down Jericho, if a man can’t.” Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Story of the Greatest All-Girl Swing Band in the World (Dial, 2009; Gr 4 Up) integrates Marilyn Nelson’s jazzy poetry with Jerry Pinkney’s swirling watercolors to depict the primarily African-American ensemble from its humble church beginnings through its record-breaking tours of the U.S. during World War II. Written in the voices of the Sweethearts’ instruments, Nelson’s syncopated verse swings between the hardships of wartime and the jumping jive of the music that momentarily lifted the listeners’ spirits. Pinkney enhances his watercolors with pencil and collage to juxtapose scenes of lush nightlife with the harsh segregation the Sweethearts encountered on the home front, in an enjoyable book perfect for history, language arts, music, and art classes.

Page after page of the autobiographical Ashley Bryan: Words to My Life’s Song (S & S, 2009; Gr 4 Up) showcases this acclaimed artist’s rich imagination and wonder at life. In warmly personal prose, Bryan writes of his Antiguan-born parents who encouraged his talent from early childhood, and traces his development as an artist through his education and his military service in World War II, storing art supplies in his gas mask. Bryan recounts the significant points of his career as teacher and illustrator, revealing the folk literature and culture that influence his work. Family photographs and striking illustrations chosen from his books overlap Bill McGuiness's photos of Bryan’s home and studio on Little Cranberry Island off the coast of Maine, where he displays the sea glass assemblages, folk art puppets, and floral paintings he has created. Bryan’s humble spirit, generous heart, and love of nature shine in this lively look at the life and influences of a prominent American visual artist that lends itself to interdisciplinary study from the middle grades up.