Year Published: 1998
Written by: Fatima Shaik
Illustrated by: E.B.Lewis
Description
“The big drum’s sounds/ say, ‘Come! Come! Come!’ / So Brother and I run from our porch / to the wide morning street …/ to meet the jazz band that calls us with it’s beat.”
When the pounding of the drum signals the start of a jazz parade, two children hurry to follow after the band. Their neighbors come too, for that’s the tradition here in New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz. As they parade through the streets, the children join in the “second line” dancing–shimmying, shaking, and saying in joyful movements that have been passed down for generations.
The Jazz of Our Street’s lyrical text pulses with the rhythms and spirit of jazz melody, while the vibrant, expressive watercolor paintings ring as sweetly as a trumpet’s note. Join the fun of this lively story–and like its appealing young characters, you’ll soon find yourself “feeling just fine.”
American Library Association
“Poetic words and stunning, light-filled watercolors express the rhythm and feeling of individual people who play in the band and of those who listen hard and dance and follow the musicians as they wind through the streets of the Tremeneighborhood. … Lewis’ paintings are some of the best he has done; both relaxed and fervent, they show people whose music brings them together.”
